[Taxacom] Open Access to all U.S. federally funded research

[Dean Pentcheff]

For any and all of you interested in the prospects of Open Access for
research publications, I recommend taking a look at and responding to
the public access initiative that has been announced by the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

In brief: they are considering the issues involved with expanding
public access to cover all publications resulting from federally
funded research. At present, the NIH has a legal requirement to do so,
but that only applies to NIH-funded research. This initiative appears
to be a substantive look at broadening that mandate to other research
agencies.

They are actively soliciting input from outside the government. You
can be sure that commercial publishers will weigh in, and weigh in
heavily. If researchers and academic institutions are to be heard, we
need to respond quickly and coherently. The deadline for responses is
January 7, 2010 (yes, a few days away). I urge you to respond
personally, and to consider formulating institutional responses (we
are doing so at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County).

Here is the text of the official request for input:
http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/default-file/RFI%20Final%20for%20FR.pdf

Here's a link to an introductory posting:
http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/12/09/ostp-to-launch-public-forum-on-how-best-to-make-federally-funded-research-available-for-free/

The first two comment phases are about:
1. Implementation:
http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/12/10/policy-forum-on-public-access-to-federally-funded-research-implementation/
2. Features and technology:
http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/12/21/policy-forum-on-public-access-to-federally-funded-research-features-and-technology/

-Dean
-- 
Dean Pentcheff
pentcheff at gmail.com