Opinion: Open access aids science research - Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner - POLITICO.com

"In fiscal year 2012, Washington spent nearly $139 billion of taxpayer money on federal research and development activities — a significant investment in the age of record deficits, growing debt and an ill-advised sequester. But despite substantial spending on research, American taxpayers do not have adequate access to the results of their investment ... he Office of Science and Technology Policy made positive strides toward open access earlier this year by releasing a proactive framework, but Congress has the responsibility to place an open access policy into law, making it less susceptible to shifting political winds and priorities.  Fortunately, there is already a system in place that showcases the value of open access. The National Institutes of Health’s PubMed Central was created in 2007 to allow researchers to freely access NIH-funded research publications ... But it is time to expand this policy to all federally funded research ... Critics of a governmentwide open access policy argue that not all publications fit the mold set by health care research. The medical research published on PubMed is cutting edge and fast-paced, and a one-year waiting period is sufficient for journals to recoup their costs before the manuscripts are publicly available. But other scientific publications, with lower circulation, may take years to recoup their publication costs because of lower demand and slower innovation in the field.  This issue is remedied by giving flexibility to the funding agency to develop its own standards for open access. By working with relevant stakeholders, the agencies can strike the right balance between maintaining a meaningful publisher model while granting researchers access to taxpayer funded research. As long as these policies keep public access as the focus, each individual agency should be given the autonomy to create its own repository.  Work done by the publishers to ensure a robust field of refined, peer-reviewed scientific articles and journals is commendable, and the NIH’s PubMed has shown that this business model can coexist within an open access framework.  The Feb. 22 memo by the OSTP that lays out the White House’s position on open access states, '[t]he administration is committed to ensuring that […] the direct results of federally funded scientific research are made available to and useful for the public, industry, and the scientific community.' This proposal moves in the right direction, but it is on Congress to put a concrete open access policy into law.  Meaningful open access policies will foster innovation, protect taxpayers’ investments and keep America on the cutting edge of science and technology. The American people deserve access to the research they have paid for.  Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is a Republican from Wisconsin."