Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 07:57:52 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam Friends: The provosts of 25 top American universities are jointly releasing an open letter that strongly backs the Federal Public Research Access Act bill and encourages higher education to prepare for a new way of disseminating research findings, reports Jennifer Heffelfinger, Communications Manager, SPARC [jennifer@arl.org]. "Widespread public dissemination levels the economic playing field for researchers outside of well-funded universities and research centers and creates more opportunities for innovation. Ease of access and discovery also encourages use by scholars outside traditional disciplinary communities, thus encouraging imaginative and productive scholarly convergence," the provosts write. Subbiah Arunachalam