SPARC, an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication, has applauded the reintroduction of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act, which would ensure that public access to research articles becomes the law of the land.
FASTR calls for federal agencies with extramural research budgets in excess of $100 million to establish consistent, permanent public access policies for articles reporting on their funded research. This means that articles reporting on the results of taxpayer-funded research would be made available to the general public to freely access and fully use. FASTR would codify the February 22, 2013 White House Directive to provide greater public access to taxpayer-funded research.
FASTR was introduced in the House and Senate on March 18, 2015, with five original bipartisan cosponsors, including Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA-14), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19), and Kevin Yoder (R-KS-3). It comes during Sunshine Week, a national initiative designed to spotlight the importance of government transparency, and freedom of information.
The FASTR Act of 2015 represents the next step forward in the competitiveness agenda, spurring both innovation and job creation in broad sectors of the economy, from agriculture and energy to publishing; improves transparency and accountability in government spending; and expands access to taxpayer-funded information while protecting classified research, royalty generating works, and preliminary data.
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