Public Access to Publicly Funded Research

Heather JosephExecutive Director, SPARC NAGPS Legislative Meeting

March 2, 2013

Each Year, the U.S. Government spends ~$60 billion on scientific

research.

~60 billion of yours – and my – tax dollars.

Happy to make this spend.

- Generate new ideas - Accelerate scientific discoveries - Fuel innovation - Grow the economy - Improve the welfare of the public

This can only happen if we can access and use the results.

Not so easy right now.

Over 200,000 articles report on U.S funded research each year.

Majority of these can only be read by purchasing access through a

journal.

Price Barriers

www.righttoresearch.org

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20050828210650/libraries.mit.edu/about/scholarly/expensive-titles.html

Library budgets journal prices

“Scientific, technical, medical, legal and business journals – an $8.9 billion market - grew at 3%

in 2010…”

STM Publishing News, http://www.stm-publishing.com/?p=722

$8.9 BILLION REVENUE/YEAR =

www.excellentadventures.ca/NFL.gif

What Does this Mean for You?

www.arl.org/sparc15

• NEED GRAPHIC

www.arl.org/sparc16

• NEED GRAPHIC OF PAY-PER-VIEW Screen

www.arl.org/sparc17

• NEED GRAPHIC OF PAY-PER-VIEW Screen

What Do You Do?

It Isn’t Inter-Library Loan…

I ask the author for a copy.

I get it from a colleague at an institution with a subscription.

We’re Used to Workarounds….

But we Need a better solution.

www.arl.org/sparc26

“By open access, we mean the free availability of articles on the public

internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print,

search or link to the full text of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software or use them

for any other lawful purpose…”

- The Budapest Open Access Initiative – February 14, 2002

Open Access = Access + Reuse

How does this play out in policy environment?

Policy Focus: Public is entitled to access and use

the results of research their tax dollars pay for.

So far, only 1 U.S. Funding Agency has enacted policy to make this a

reality.

In 2008, Congress passes law enacting NIH Public Access Policy.

A Simple Policy:If you receive funding from the NIH, you agree to make articles reporting on your NIH-funded

research available online to the public for free within a year of

publication.

“The NIH is the world’s largest grant agency; this decision is the

scientific equivalent of successfully storming the

Bastille.”

- Michael Nielsen, The Future of Science

NIH Policy is a Proven Success.

• Enacted April 2008• Over 2.6 million full text articles now

available via PubMed Central• ~700,000 unique users per day• 99% articles downloaded at least once• 25% university users, 40% citizens, 17%

companies, remainder government or others

Next Up: All Other Federal Science Agencies

Four years of aggressive advocacy in Congress and with White

House...

…Are paying off.

White House Directive requires 19 U.S. Federal Agencies and

Departments to develop Public Access Policies over next 6

months.

Huge.

NYTIMES Ed Here.

Huge. But not Endgame.

We Want Open Access to be the Law of the Land…

Not Just the Preference of a President.

Stakeholders can influence specifics of Agency Policies over

next 6 months.

Our Goals Include:

• Shortest Possible Embargo Period – no longer than 6 months

• Full Digital Reuse Rights (no restrictions other than attribution)

• Articles permanently housed in federal archive

Critical tool to accomplish this – Legislative Pressure.

The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act - FASTR.

Senate Sponsors:Sen. Cornyn (R-TX)Sen. Wyden (D-OR)

House Sponsors:Rep. Doyle (D-PA)Rep. Lofgren (D-CA)Rep. Yoder (R-KS)

FASTR (H.R. 708 and S. 350)

• Covers 11 U.S. Federal Science Agencies• Requires 6 month max. embargo• Calls for federally maintained/approved

archive• Requires “Productive Reuse” of digital

articles

FASTR:

Different from previously proposed legislation because it

puts issue of reuse rights squarely on the table.

Why Is This Important?

Because We Want More of these Moments…

Not These.

To Truly Succeed, We Must get the Rights Right.

Major Effort Needed to Educate, Well, Pretty Much

Everyone.

NAGPS Can Help.

Thank You for Listening!

Heather JosephExecutive Director, SPARC

heather@arl.orgwww.arl.org/sparc