Members Of Congress Back Open Access

Public-access policies can help improve the value of academic research and boost U.S. economic competitiveness, according to a letter from 13 members of Congress. Sent to the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, the June 28 letter urges OSTP to “act quickly to make federally funded research more accessible to academics, university students, and the American taxpayer.” The letter states that public access to federally funded research is critical for transparency and for the U.S. to maintain its leadership role in science. “We believe simply that taxpayers who fund research should be able to have access to research results,” the Congress members write. They add that although they value the editorial contributions of the publishing industry, they “do not support keeping publicly funded research behind expensive pay walls that force the public to pay twice for access to research.”