US Congress Representatives Doyle, Waxman, Wasserman-Schultz, Harper, Boucher and Rohrabacher recently introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). The bill is expected to ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by 11 US federal agencies.
All supporters of public access – universities and colleges, researchers, libraries, campus administrators, patient advocates, publishers, consumers, individuals, and others – are being asked to take steps to support the bill.
Before both the House of Representatives and the Senate, FRPAA would require those agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from such funding no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The bill gives individual agencies flexibility in choosing the location of the digital repository to house this content, as long as the repositories meet conditions for interoperability and public accessibility. It also has provisions for long-term archiving.
The bill specifically covers unclassified research funded by agencies including Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.
FRPAA is observed to reflect the growing trend among funding agencies – and college and university campuses – to leverage their investment in the conduct of research by maximising the dissemination of results. It is seen to follow the successful path forged by the NIH’s Public Access Policy, as well as by private funders like the Wellcome Trust and campuses such as Harvard, MIT and the University of Kansas. The bill is also projected to reflect the Administration’s recent expression of interest in the potential implementation of public access policies across US science and technology agencies – as indicated by the call for public comment issued by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which closed in January.
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