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February 06, 2007
ASCB supports Public Access
Major society publisher announces support for public access
to scientific literature
Washington, DC (Feb. 6, 2007) - The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), a non-profit scientific society of over 11,000 members and publisher of the high-impact monthly journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell, has announced its "Position on Public Access to Scientific Literature," calling for free public access to federally funded research within six months of publication. ASCB has provided free access (after a two-month embargo) to research published in its journals since 2001 and has experienced no adverse impact on its finances.
The ASCB statement, which was announced in a January 31, 2007 press release, reads:
ASCB Position on Public Access to Scientific Literature
The ASCB believes strongly that barriers to scientific communication slow scientific progress. The more widely scientific results are disseminated, the more readily they can be understood, applied, and built upon. The sooner findings are shared, the faster they will lead to new scientific insights and breakthroughs. This conviction has motivated the ASCB to provide free access to all of the research articles in Molecular Biology of the Cell two months after publication, which it has done since 2001. The articles are available both on the journal's website and in the National Library of Medicine's online archive, PubMed Central.
The vast majority of the biomedical research conducted at American universities and colleges is funded by taxpayers. The ASCB believes that taxpayers are best served when all scientists, educators, physicians, and members of the public - including patients and their families - have access to publicly funded research results. So long as significant access barriers remain, taxpayers are not fully benefiting from the work that they fund. With the proliferation of networked technology, we have an unprecedented and cost-effective means to overcome such barriers. For the first time, it is possible and practical to offer free access to every potential user. It is incumbent upon us, as scientists and citizens, to take full advantage of this opportunity.
Some publishers argue that providing free access to their journal's content will catastrophically erode their revenue base. The experience of many successful research journals demonstrates otherwise; these journals make their online content freely available after a short embargo period that protects subscription revenue. For example, as noted above, the content of Molecular Biology of the Cell is free to all after only two months, yet the journal remains not only financially sound, but profitable. The data clearly show that free access and profitability are not mutually exclusive.
Our goal should be to make research articles freely available as soon as feasible so that science and the public benefit from their expanded use and application. At the same time, it is important that nonprofit societies and other publishers generate sufficient revenues to sustain the costs of reviewing and publishing articles. We believe that a six-month embargo period represents a reasonable compromise between the financial requirements of supporting a journal and the need for access to current research.
For these reasons, the ASCB supports efforts to require that the results of federally funded biomedical research be made freely available to the public, no more than six months after they are published.
[statement ends]
The statement, which is available online at http://ascb.org/index.cfm?navid=10&id=1968&tcode=nws3, bolsters the case for a mandatory National Institutes of Health public access policy and for passage of The Federal Research Public Access Act, a measure that would require federal agencies that fund over $100 million in annual external research to make manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from that research publicly available via the Internet within six months of publication. The bill was introduced last year by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and awaiting reintroduction in the 110th Congress (For further information about the legislation, see http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/).
The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing entities that support open public access to the results of federally funded research, including passage of the Federal Research Public Access Act. The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles on taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. Details on the ATA may be found at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.
Posted by Donna Braquet at 10:12 AM
February 01, 2007
Students Rally for Access to Publicly Funded Research
For immediate release
February 1, 2007
Contact(s):
Gavin Baker
Freeculture.org
grbaker@ufl.edu
(407) 929-5657
Jennifer McLennan
SPARC
jennifer@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
Students Rally for Access to Publicly Funded Research
Campuses declare "National Day of Action" in support of federal legislation
WASHINGTON, DC - February 1, 2007 - Freeculture.org, the international student movement for free culture, in collaboration with the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA), today announced that February 15, 2007 will be a "National Day of Action" for students that support open sharing of scientific and scholarly research findings on the Internet. Events nationwide will highlight the importance of taxpayer access to publicly funded research and rally support for Congressional passage of the Federal Research Public Access Act. The day also marks the fifth anniversary of the landmark Budapest Open Access Initiative, when the worldwide open access movement first took form, and will be supported by the launch of a new Web resource and petition for public access, produced jointly by freeculture.org and the ATA.
The Federal Research Public Access Act was introduced last year by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and is awaiting reintroduction in the 110th Congress. The bill would require federal agencies that fund over $100 million in annual external research to make manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from that research publicly available via the Internet. (For further information about the legislation, see http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/). It is estimated that approximately half of the research conducted at universities is government funded.
Freeculture.org and its 36 chapters nationwide joins 72 other members of the ATA, 132 university and college presidents and provosts, and thousands of taxpayers, patients, researchers, and librarians that have voiced support for the legislation.
"Students are researchers, and were among the first groups to recognize the vast benefits of open access," said Gavin Baker, director of freeculture.org's Open Access project and author of a University of Florida student senate resolution in support of the Cornyn-Lieberman public access bill (http://www.sg.ufl.edu/MeetingPDF%5C155.htm). "Since many of their professors, advisors, and colleagues have conducted their work with the benefit of federal grants, it makes sense that this work should be freely circulated and built upon. Students have coordinated their efforts on a national level to formalize their strong belief that public access to research is the way to move forward."
"Improving access to government-funded research results is critical to advancing science," said David Minh, a University of California San Diego graduate student who serves on the coordinating committee for Universities Allied for Essential Medicines. "Public access to research will not only benefit students and researchers in the United States, but will also empower scientists in the developing world - who have far fewer resources available to them - to accelerate the pace of biomedical research, particularly in neglected diseases."
"Students adding their considerable energy and significant weight to the momentum behind the issue is yet another sign of the strength and breadth of support for public access to research results," said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, founder of the ATA). "We encourage universities, libraries, researchers, scholarly societies, patient organizations, and consumer groups to support student researchers in making the National Day of Action a success."
Campuses nationwide will be announcing individual events and support for the National Day of Action in the coming weeks. For more information, please visit the freeculture.org-Alliance for Taxpayer Access student resource at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/students/.
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The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing entities that support free public access to the results of federally funded research and advocate passage of the Federal Research Public Access Act. The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. Details on the ATA may be found at www.taxpayeraccess.org.
Posted by admin at 02:48 PM
Nature Article about Open Access
PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access
Journal publishers lock horns with free-information movement
Nature
Published online: 24 January 2007; Corrected online: 25 January 2007 | doi:10.1038/445347a
Jim Giles
The author of Nail 'Em! Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses is not the kind of figure normally associated with the relatively sedate world of scientific publishing. Besides writing the odd novel, Eric Dezenhall has made a name for himself helping companies and celebrities protect their reputations, working for example with Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief now serving a 24-year jail term for fraud.
Posted by Donna Braquet at 01:38 PM