Aggregated News
In a victory for open access advocates, the White House science office today released a long-awaited policy aimed at sharing the results of federally funded research with the public. The policy will require that science agencies make papers that they fund freely available online within 12 months after the results appear in a journal.
The policy follows several years of consultations and a petition to the White House from open access advocates last year. It appears to have found a middle ground between the two sides in a decadelong debate over so-called "open access"—the issue of whether and when scientific papers funded with taxpayer dollars should be available, for free, to the public. Traditionally, publicly funded scientists have published their work in scholarly journals that charge fees for access to the papers. That system has broken down in recent years, however, with the advent of digital technologies and new research funding models. Many journals and scientific societies have resisted complete and immediate open access, arguing that it will destroy the revenue streams they need to survive.
The new federal directive...
The policy follows several years of consultations and a petition to the White House from open access advocates last year. It appears to have found a middle ground between the two sides in a decadelong debate over so-called "open access"—the issue of whether and when scientific papers funded with taxpayer dollars should be available, for free, to the public. Traditionally, publicly funded scientists have published their work in scholarly journals that charge fees for access to the papers. That system has broken down in recent years, however, with the advent of digital technologies and new research funding models. Many journals and scientific societies have resisted complete and immediate open access, arguing that it will destroy the revenue streams they need to survive.
The new federal directive...