Public-Access Support Grows

Provosts from 21 universities have signed a letter supporting the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (S. 2695). Their action follows an open letter to the academic community issued by 25 other university provosts who support the bill (C&EN, Aug. 7, page 38).

The legislation calls for federal agencies that have annual extramural research budgets of more than $100 million to require that agency-funded researchers submit an electronic manuscript of peer-reviewed journal articles for posting in a publicly accessible digital repository (C&EN, May 8, page 28).

The 21 universities that have signed the letter, addressed to bill cosponsor Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), include Rice University; the University of Colorado, Boulder; the University of Hawaii, Manoa; and Washington State University. They all are part of an organization called the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), a consortium of 31 research libraries in 16 states in the greater Midwest and western U.S.

???We share your concern that far too often the results of research funded by the U.S. government are not broadly available to researchers, scientists, and members of the public,??? the letter states. The letter also notes that ???public access to publicly funded research facilitates the open discussion needed to accelerate research, share knowledge, improve treatment of diseases, and increase human understanding.???

The University of Texas, Austin, and Texas A&M University have also sent letters to Cornyn supporting the legislation, according to the GWLA letter.

Many scholarly publishers, including the American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN, argue that the provisions of the bill would damage their ability to continue publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed journals.