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September 21, 2008
Government Weighs Open Access Against Publisher Interests
September saw the introduction of HR 6845, a piece of legislation known as the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act. This legislation seeks to reverse federal public-access policies, such as the requirement that manuscripts resulting from research funded by the National Intitutes of Health must be deposited into PubMed Central; the articles are made freely available to the public within 1 year of publication.
A hearing was held on September 11 by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. Library Journal reports that the committee meeting "focused almost entirely on the current NIH public access mandate" and that the discussion "looked far more to the economic future of science publishing than to public access to taxpayer funded research." According to another Library Journal report, the legislation is on hold until at least next year and that the bill's sponsor (Rep. John Conyers) seems to be more focused on a political "turf war" regarding the issue. Several blogs have addressed the topic in recent weeks, including Techdirt, Chemical & Engineering News, and ars technica, which provides a solid discussion of the issues at stake and views from both sides of the debate.
Posted by Jerianne Thompson
Posted by colldev at September 21, 2008 09:40 PM