[LIS-Forum] Public access to scientific knowledge

[Subbiah Arunachalam]

Friends:

Here is an example of what is happening in the US on the open access front.
Will all the science departments, universities and research laboratories
adopt open access soon? What can we, the LIS professionals, do to see that
kind of transformation?

Arun



From the Electronic frontier foundation

MARCH 25, 2015 | BY PARKER HIGGINS
<https://www.eff.org/about/staff/parker-higgins>
Locking In Public Access to Scientific Knowledgeby Unlocking Scholarly
Research

Promising public access legislation FASTR (Fair Access to Science &
Technology Research Act) has been re-introduced
<http://yoder.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/bipartisan-coalition-introduces-fastr-act-to-improve-access-to-federally>
by
a bipartisan coalition in Congress. Lawmakers now have an important
opportunity to strengthen and expand rules that allow taxpayers to freely
read articles resulting from research their tax dollars support. EFF
continues to encourage legislators to pass this bill as an important step
forward—though there are still some measures to improve.

<https://act.eff.org/action/secure-open-access-to-taxpayer-funded-research>*Take
action to support FASTR*
<https://act.eff.org/action/secure-open-access-to-taxpayer-funded-research>*
right
now.*

Shortly after FASTR was initially introduced
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/new-bill-helps-expand-public-access-scientific-knowledge>
in
2013, the White House released a directive requiring the results of research
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/white-house-open-access-memo-strong-could-be-stronger>funded
by major federal government entities to be made freely available to the
public. In the two years since, eight agencies and departments have begun
complying with that directive by releasing plans for putting research
online.

Those steps have been successful and effective, and make a strong case for
FASTR. The White House Directive is good, but codifying it through
Congressional legislation would create a more stable rule, guaranteeing
that the public's access is placed beyond the reach of any future
presidential administration with different priorities.

Further, FASTR would strengthen the public access provisions in the
Directive by reducing the embargo period—the length of time after research
is published before it must be made freely available to the public—from 12
months down to six.

One major drawback of both the White House Directive and the FASTR
legislation is the lack of an open licensing requirement. Public access is
an important first step, but without open licensing, valuable secondary
uses—like data mining, major cross-discipline analysis projects, and
redistribution efforts—could be caught under a cloud of copyright
uncertainty. In order to make the upgrade from “public access” to real
“Open Access,” future rules should include a requirement for the products
of research to be released under a free license, like the Creative Commons
Attribution <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/> (CC BY) license
EFF uses <https://www.eff.org/copyright> for its publications.

*Tell your lawmakers to support FASTR*
<https://act.eff.org/action/secure-open-access-to-taxpayer-funded-research>
* today.*

FASTR's reintroduction comes at an exciting time for the open access
movement: the movement has now been building steam for over a decade, and
has chalked up some major successes. Also last week, the Wikimedia
Foundation released a thorough Open Access policy
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/18/wikimedia-open-access-policy/>that
sets a strong example for non-governmental organizations. Under that
policy, the results of research that Wikimedia supports through grants or
collaboration must be released under a free license.

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