2008 Woodie Awards
Tax-funded research should be made available to those in need
Guest Column
Sami Lange
Issue date: 11/15/06 Section: Opinion
A Harris interactive poll showed that more than 80 percent of Americans felt tax-funded research should be made publicly accessible. Several major organizations are behind the open access idea, including the American Library Association, which is a member of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.
The recent and most groundbreaking issue is the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006, which requires agencies who have a research budget in access of $100 million to implement online access to articles within six months of publication.
When describing the act, Nobel Prize laureate Richard Roberts said, "as a scientist and a taxpayer, I support this bill because it lifts barriers that hinder, delay or block the spread of scientific knowledge supported by federal tax dollars."
The policy excludes classified, copyrighted or patented materials. Publishers of the scholarly journals are concerned that open access will precipitate the cancellation of many library subscriptions. However, built into the act is a six-month delay in the release of completed manuscripts that may help to address this concern.
In a Washington Post article Patricia S. Schroeder, president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers, promised a fight and said the lack of success in explaining the cost of performing a peer review, editing the accepted articles, and putting the articles into a reader friendly form, is frustrating.
For those interested in voicing an opinion about the act, the Alliance for Taxpayer Access has displayed action steps in support of the policy on their Web site. The list includes phoning, faxing or e-mailing your senator to support the bill, faxing a letter of support to Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman, the sponsors of the bill, and issuing a public statement of support.
This issue is of grave importance, not only in supplying citizens with information that could help them, but also in propelling and advancing science and research.
Sami Lange is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University.
The recent and most groundbreaking issue is the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006, which requires agencies who have a research budget in access of $100 million to implement online access to articles within six months of publication.
When describing the act, Nobel Prize laureate Richard Roberts said, "as a scientist and a taxpayer, I support this bill because it lifts barriers that hinder, delay or block the spread of scientific knowledge supported by federal tax dollars."
The policy excludes classified, copyrighted or patented materials. Publishers of the scholarly journals are concerned that open access will precipitate the cancellation of many library subscriptions. However, built into the act is a six-month delay in the release of completed manuscripts that may help to address this concern.
In a Washington Post article Patricia S. Schroeder, president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers, promised a fight and said the lack of success in explaining the cost of performing a peer review, editing the accepted articles, and putting the articles into a reader friendly form, is frustrating.
For those interested in voicing an opinion about the act, the Alliance for Taxpayer Access has displayed action steps in support of the policy on their Web site. The list includes phoning, faxing or e-mailing your senator to support the bill, faxing a letter of support to Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman, the sponsors of the bill, and issuing a public statement of support.
This issue is of grave importance, not only in supplying citizens with information that could help them, but also in propelling and advancing science and research.
Sami Lange is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
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posted 10/17/07 @ 1:33 AM PST
"The public access policy of the institute was implemented in May 2005 and was voluntary for researchers. It has been considered a failure, with about 4 percent of the research articles making it to public access. (Continued…)
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posted 7/31/08 @ 7:21 AM PST
We need to make sure that students get the most out of their money, because a lot of the money gets wasted on programs that no one really benefits from. (Continued…)
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posted 9/03/08 @ 11:47 PM PST
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