A new bill called the Research Works Act has been introduced into the US House of Representatives. The bill is designed to roll back the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and block the development of similar policies at other federal agencies. Co-sponsored by senators Darrell Issa and Carolyn Maloney, the bill has been referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Advocates of public access, like the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, have called on supporters to speak out against this proposed legislation. Supporters have also been asked to take this opportunity to express support for the expansion of the NIH public access policy to other federal science and technology agencies. The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is administered by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).
Essentially, the bill seeks to prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public online. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and its Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division have endorsed the bill.
To access our daily STM news feed through your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphones, please visit www.myscoope.com for a mobile friendly reading experience.
