Access to Federally Funded Research

image © Right to Research CoalitionSPARC’s student initiative, the Right to Research Coalition, has released a video interview of Jack Andraka, a high school sophomore who won the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a breakthrough diagnostic for pancreatic cancer. Interviewed by Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Andraka discusses how open access articles and NIH’s PubMed Central played a key role in enabling his discovery.

The Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and ARL have drafted a proposal in response to the OSTP memo: The SHared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE).

 share-proposal-07june13.pdf

The proposal begins:

Research universities are long-lived and are mission-driven to generate, make accessible, and preserve over time new knowledge and understanding. Research universities collectively have the assets needed for a national solution for enhanced public access to federally funded research output. As the principal producers of the resources that are to be made publicly available under the new White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)[1] memorandum, and that are critical to the continuing success of higher education in the United States, universities have invested in the infrastructure, tools, and services necessary to provide effective and efficient access to their research and scholarship. The new White House directive provides a compelling reason to integrate higher education’s investments to date into a system of cross-institutional digital repositories that will be known as SHared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE)...

Comments and questions about the draft SHARE proposal (PDF) are welcome—please send e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

image © Niklas WikströmARL, the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) have drafted a proposal, “SHared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE)” (PDF), in response to the recent White House directive on public access to federally funded research and data.

image © Wally GobetzThis week ARL joined 109 other organizations as part of the Coalition for National Science Funding in a letter (PDF) to the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, as well as the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, expressing concern about recent Congressional actions that call into question the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) merit review process for awarding research grants.

image © Tom LohdanThis week, the National Research Council (NRC) is hosting four days of discussion on the recent White House memo, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research” (PDF). NRC is conducting these sessions to garner input from a wide variety of perspectives on behalf of many federal agencies. ARL, the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) presented joint statements on “Expanded Public Access to Data” (PDF) and “Expanded Public Access to Publications” (PDF).

The Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Association of Research Libraries presented a joint statement on expanded public access to data to the National Research Council at the National Academy of Science Forum on May 16, 2013.

 univ-lib-statement-public-access-data-16may13.pdf

image © ed_needs_a_bicycleOn May 10, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) submitted comments (PDF) on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a trade agreement currently being negotiated between the US and the European Union (EU). While negotiations are still in their preliminary stages, LCA urges the inclusion of provisions to harmonize public access to the results of government-funded research. LCA also cautions against the inclusion of an intellectual property chapter in the agreement.

The Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Association of Research Libraries presented a joint statement on expanded public access to publications to the National Research Council at the National Academy of Science Forum on May 14, 2013.

 univ-lib-statement-public-access-publications-14may13.pdf

On February 22, 2013, John P. Holdren, Director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, issued a memorandum directing federal research funding agencies with R&D budgets of $100 million or more to develop a plan within six months to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the federal Government.

image © Tom LohdanToday the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) released a two-page statement by David E. Shulenburger calling on the research university community to provide input to the US Government for increasing access to the results of federally funded research.

On April 17, 2013, the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) released this two-page statement by David E. Shulenburger calling on the research university community to provide input to the US Government for increasing access to the results of federally funded research.

 expanded-public-access-a-new-era-with-new-challenges-15apr13.pdf

image © Tom Lohdan Today, the Obama administration issued a historic Policy Memorandum that opens up access to the results of publicly funded research. ARL applauds the Obama administration for this critically important action. The memorandum calls upon federal agencies with annual research and development budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with free and unlimited online access to the results of that research.

Letter from library associations thanking Paul Broun for conducting a hearing on Public Access and Scholarly Publication Interests.

frpaa-broun-29mar2012.pdf

Library association letter expressing opposition to H.R. 3699, The Research Works Act.

lt-researchworksact-24jan12.pdf

Letter from higher education and library associations thanking Representative Doyle for introducing H.R. 4004, "The Federal Research Public Access Act."

oawg-house-frpaa-14feb2012.pdf

Letter from higher education and library associations thanking Senator Cornyn for introducing S. 2096, "'The Federal Research Public Access Act."

oawg-senate-frpaa-14feb2012.pdf

Letter opposing the Research Works Act.

lt-researchworksact-24feb12.pdf

RLI issue 274 includes:

• The Future of the US Research University
• Joining in the Enterprise of Response in the Wake of the NSF Data Management Planning Requirement

RLI issue 273 includes:

• Three Key Public Policies for Research Libraries: Net Neutrality, Fair Use, Open and Public Access
• The Importance of Net Neutrality to Research Libraries in the Digital Age
• Challenges in Employing Fair Use in Academic and Research Libraries
• Public Access to Federally Funded Research: Contributions to Economic Development, Competitiveness, and Innovation

RLI issue 269 includes:

• Strategies for Opening Up Content: Laying the Groundwork for an Open System of Scholarship
• Achieving Consensus on the University of Kansas Open-Access Policy
• Improving Access with Open-Access Publishing Funds
• Model Language for Author Rights in Library Content Licenses
• Opening Up Content in HathiTrust: Using HathiTrust Permissions Agreements to Make Authors’ Work Available

ARL supports enhanced access to federally funded research resources because such policies are integrally tied to and support the mission of higher education and scholarship. ARL believes that extending public access policies to federally funded research to other science and technology agencies will be a central component of President Obama's transparency and open Government initiative.

ostp-public-access-comments-15jan2010.pdf

Presentation from the "Potential Library Roles for Supporting Current and Future Public Access Initiatives" program. Presented at the 155th ARL Membership Meeting, October 2009.

mm09fall-choudhury.pps

Presentation from the "Potential Library Roles for Supporting Current and Future Public Access Initiatives" program. Presented at the 155th ARL Membership Meeting, October 2009.

mm09fall-choudhury.mp3

openletter_frpaa2009.pdf

Letter from library associations thanking Senators Lieberman and Cornyn for introducing FRPAA.

lt-frpaa-cornyn-lieberman-02jul09.pdf

Letter from higher education and library association asking the House to oppose H.R. 801, "The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act," and support the worldwide move toward open, public access to the results of publicly funded research.

oawg_to_judiciary-09-feb.pdf

Every year, the federal government funds tens of billions of dollars in basic and applied research with the expectation that the results will accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, stimulate innovation, and improve the public good. These research results typically are reported in articles published in a wide variety of academic journals. However, the high cost of journal subscriptions and restrictive licensing terms severely limits public access to these articles. Because U.S. taxpayers underwrite this research, they have a right to expect its dissemination and use will be maximized.

patransitionoawg.pdf

The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) submitted this statement for the record to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing titled, "Restoring the Rule of Law" held on September 16, 2008.

testimony-ruleoflaw-23sept08.pdf

This paper, in an effort to help authors make informed choices about their rights, compares and contrasts how the agreements of 12 publishers permit authors to meet the requirements of the NIH Public Access Policy and share their works while they are under embargo.

grillot-pubmed-aug08.pdf

Analysis from ARL and SPARC asserting that the NIH Public Access Policy is fully consistent with the United States Copyright Act, has no relation to the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement, is consistent with the trend among the United States' trading partners to make publicly funded research articles freely available on the Internet, and is fully consistent with the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).

nihpolicy_copyright_july2008.pdf