A bill that would require California-funded research to be deposited in open access repositories recently passed the state's Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee. The bill was the brainchild of California Council on Science & Tech Fellow Annabelle Kleist. Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert) introduced the bill.
According to a report published in the LibraryJournal, it not clear as to how much research California does fund as agencies are not required to report their funding to the legislature. Most recent figure Nestande's office could find was $327 million in direct research funding in 2006, based on an National Science Foundation report.
As originally drafted, the bill called for a six month embargo and a new repository managed by the California State Library. However, in that form, in addition to opposition from the American Association of Publishers, NetChoice, TechAmerica, and CalChamber, it attracted critique from an unusual source - the University of California (UC) system, whose libraries spend nearly $40 million each year on access to academic journals.
In a letter to the committee, Robert L. Powell, Chair of U.C.'s Academic Council, wrote that while supporting open access in principle, the Senate has concerns that the bill's current permissible embargo period of six months may be too short, and does not conform to national open access policies. Adrian Diaz, UC, Legislative Director, asked the committee to explicitly state that UC is not a state agency, and is therefore not required to develop an open access policy of its own.
Nestande made the requested amendments, and UC now endorses the bill. She also introduced amendments to replace the new repository requirement with "allowing agencies to determine which existing repositories" they'll accept.
