Getting Up to Speed on FASTR Legislation

"A bill that would mandate public access to federally funded research is now one step closer to becoming law. On July 29, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs unanimously approved the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act. This bill would require that peer-reviewed scientific publications from federally funded research be made freely available to the public within a year of publication. The bill will next move to the full Senate for a vote. The bill has also been introduced in the House, but the committee responsible for the bill has yet to vote on it. The bill is similar to a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo from February 2013; the memo requires agencies that fund more than $100 million worth of research to fashion plans to make peer-reviewed publications available to the public. Federal agencies and some publishers have since begun arrangements to release publications in accord with the OSTP mandate. (See CHORUS Papers for a related article.) The new legislation would codify public-access policies into law, making requirements less likely to shift with each administration ..."