Access to Federally Funded Research

The US government funds research with the expectation that new ideas and discoveries from the research will propel science, stimulate the economy, and improve the lives and welfare of Americans. In addition, the government also funds collaborative information technology and network-based infrastructure projects such as investments in supercomputer centers to leveraging investments in collaborative database development such as Genbank. These wide and diverse investments in e-science have fundamentally changed the nature of scientific research and the understanding by members of the research community of how research is conducted and shared. Recently, policy makers have recognized these changes via legislative and administrative processes and are now focused on new strategies to enhance US economic competitiveness, to advance science, to better manage the research investments, and improve access to the fruits of our collective investment.

Legislation and selected agency initiatives would make federally funded research publicly available under certain circumstances. Enhancing access to federally funded research is a priority for the library community as such initiatives improve access by the public, provide for effective archiving strategies for these resources, and ensure accountability of the federal investment.

NIH Public Access Policy

In September 2004, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) proposed that research articles based on NIH funding, in whole or in part, be deposited in PubMed Central, NIH's online archive of biomedical literature. These articles would become publicly available six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The proposal, NOT-OD-04-064, sought to accelerate the pace of discovery, provide additional capabilities to NIH in managing its research portfolio, and enhance public access to biomedical literatures.

ACS Challenging NIH's PubChem Database (2005)

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has asked that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminate, or significantly alter, PubChem, a publicly available database that includes information about the biological activities of chemical compounds. Information included in PubChem is available from disparate public sources. PubChem is considered the "informatics backbone" of the NIH Molecular Libraries Initiative, an effort launched by NIH last fall that focuses on helping scientists use small molecule chemical compounds in their research. The Molecular Libraries Initiative is a part of NIH's Roadmap Initiative, which seeks to accelerate the development of new research and medical treatments.

ARL Response to White House RFI on Public Access to Scholarly Publications

On January 8, 2012, Prudence Adler, Associate Executive Director, Federal Relations and Information Policy at ARL, submitted comments in response to the White House RFI on Public Access to Scholarly Publications. Below are the comments.

Response to White House RFI on Public Access to Digital Data

On January 12, 2012, representatives from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), ARL, and SPARC, submitted comments in response to the White House RFI on Public Access to Digital Data. Below are the comments submitted.

Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA)

On February 9, 2012, Sens. Cornyn (R-TX), Wyden (D-OR), and Hutchinson (R-TX) and Reps. Doyle (D-PA), Yoder (R-KS), and Clay (D-MO) introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA, S. 2096 and H.R. 4004 ), companion bills that would ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by 11 US federal agencies.

Research Works Act

On December 16, 2011, the Research Works Act, HR 3699, was introduced in the US House of Representatives by the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Darrell Issa (R-CA), and by co-sponsor Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). The legislation would have rolled back the NIH Public Access Policy and blocked the development of similar policies at other federal agencies. Essentially, the bill sought to prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public online.

White House Petition for Public Access to Research Hits Target

We did it! In just two weeks, the White House petition for public access to federally funded research results garnered the necessary 25,000 signatures for the petition to be reviewed by the White House Chief of Staff. The next step is for the White to House to issue an official response. The "We the People" petition was posted on May 21, 2012, by Access2Research, a group of advocates for open access.