US Government Issues Open Access Mandate for Federally Funded Research » AJE Expert Edge

"Several months ago, over 65,000 people signed a petition asking the United States government to mandate free access to any scientific literature that results from taxpayer-funded research. Today, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy provided an official response, one that fans of the NIH’s current policy are sure to enjoy. In the response, the head of the OSTP says, 'The Obama Administration agrees that citizens deserve easy access to the results of research their tax dollars have paid for.' To that end, the Administration sent a memorandum to all federal agencies with research budgets greater than $100 million instructing them to adopt a policy similar to that of the NIH: all taxpayer-funded research must become freely available within 12 months of its publication. Wisely, the individual agencies have the option to change the embargo period as needed. A similar announcement was made by the UK government last July regarding public access, in which 'gold' open access (the author-pays PLOS-like model) was specifically mentioned. The new US directive, however, is largely mirrored on the NIH public access policy requiring NIH-funded research to be deposited in PubMed Central, a form of 'green' open access Coupled with the recent introduction of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), this now marks efforts to open up federally funded research by both the legislative and executive branches of the US government. FASTR puts forth similar mandates, but the passage of a law would be more permanent than a presidential directive. You can read the FASTR bill or check out this excellent comparison of FASTR and today’s directive by renowned open access expert Peter Suber. The world of scientific publishing continues to change, and today’s announcement is yet another example. It is unclear what is best for the global research community, but having access to research funded by the biggest agencies in the US seems like a step forward."