According to a White House webpage, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has
… issued a memorandum today to Federal agencies that directs those with more than $100 million in research and development expenditures to develop plans to make the results of federally-funded research publicly available free of charge within 12 months after original publication.
This is already true for research funded by the National Institute of Health. For years some of us have been pushing for the National Science Foundation and other agencies to do the same thing. Elsevier and other companies fought against it, even trying to pass a law to stop it…. but a petition to the White House seems to have had an effect!
In response to this petition, Holdren now says:
while this new policy call does not insist that every agency copy the NIH approach exactly, it does ensure that similar policies will appear across government.
If this really happens, this will be very big news. So let’s fight to make sure this initiative doesn’t get watered down or undermined by the bad guys! The quickest easiest thing is to talk to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, either by phone or email, as explained here. A phone call counts more than an email.
One great thing about Holdren’s new memo is that it requires open access to experimental data, not just papers.
And one sad thing is that it only applies to federally funded research in the sciences, not the humanities. It does not apply to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Done well, research in the humanities can be just as important as scientific research… since most of our problems involve humans.
Great!
Though I wish somehow it could be open only to US citizens. No reason the Chinese, who hack into so many of our properties, should benefit.
They’ve probably already hacked into all the journals they want.
I dunno about you, but when I publish a paper, I want as many people to read it as possible—regardless where they live
A welcome development, indeed! Thank you for sharing–it is a victory for the open-access movement! Hopefully, this trend continues where it is needed and deemed plausible for all parties involved.
Open access guru Peter Suber writes:
The battle is not yet won: glimmers of rational thought in Washington have a rather unfortunate habit of failing to result in tangible action. How do we (reasonably civilly) keep the pressure on?
The quickest easiest thing is to talk to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, either by phone or email, as explained here. A phone call counts more than an email. Thanks for prodding me to find out what we can do next!
This no-cost intelligent choice can increase the results of the research in medical research (the result is save lives), in technological research (progress of the humanity).
I hope that other country will follow the example.
Saluti
DOmenico
Great news. I’ve hit paywalls too many times to count.
One great thing about Holdren’s new memo is that it requires open access to experimental data, not just papers.
And one sad thing is that it only applies to federally funded research in the sciences, not the humanities. It does not apply to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Done well, research in the humanities can be just as important as scientific research… since most of our problems involve humans. And in all cases, US citizens deserve to see the research they’ve paid for!
I’m actually working on a post about open access to research. This will be a great addition to that, a link to this post will naturally be included. :-)
One of the other benefits that can come of something like this is the knowledge gained by the general public. When I wrote an articles on the dangers of some pseudo-science medicine, I found it very difficult to get access to simple studies that would prove my point directly. If the American public can access proper scientific knowledge, we could hopefully see a more educated public. Here’s hoping anyway.