[Taxacom] Fwd: Open access op/ed in NY Times

[Scott Lyell Gardner]

This is an important issue! -Scott

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Open access op/ed in NY Times
Date: 	Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:39:55 -0600
From: 	WayneG <hwgraspach at BELLSOUTH.NET>
Reply-To: 	Mammalian Biology <MAMMAL-L at SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU>
To: 	MAMMAL-L at SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU



The last day for public comment on this issue is tomorrow.  So, here's 
John Hawks' post for any list members who may wish to respond.
Cheers,
Wayne Gramelspacher
Yazoo County, MS
/

"Where, then, does the soul reside with its better body while it awaits 
the sound of the trumpet?"-Stephen Jay Gould

/

*From:* John Hawks
*Sent:* Tuesday, January 10, 2012 11:43 PM
*Subject:* Open access op/ed in NY Times


Molecular biologist Michael Eisen, writing in the /New York Times/: 
"Research bought, then paid for" 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/opinion/research-bought-then-paid-for.html?_r=1>. 


    THROUGH the National Institutes of Health, American taxpayers have
    long supported research directed at understanding and treating human
    disease. Since 2009, the results of that research have been
    available free of charge on the National Library of Medicine’s Web
    site, allowing the public (patients and physicians, students and
    teachers) to read about the discoveries their tax dollars paid for.

    But a bill introduced in the House of Representatives last month
    threatens to cripple this site. The Research Works Act would forbid
    the N.I.H. to require, as it now does, that its grantees provide
    copies of the papers they publish in peer-reviewed journals to the
    library.

Three years ago, a similar bill was introduced into Congress and did not 
proceed into law ("Congress to repeal open access science provisions?" 
<http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/metascience/open-access/congress-takes-up-open-access-rollback-2009.html>). 
Today's NIH repository and the data access provisions of NSF grants were 
established by acts of Congress in the late 1990s. In my opinion, the 
agencies have in many areas gotten away with the bare minimum of 
compliance with these regulations. Worse, far from strengthening open 
access to publications and data, some in Congress want to reverse them. 
The current effort owes much to lobbying by academic publishers, and 
large campaign donations from officers and employees of those publishers 
to key Congressmen. Eisen shares more information on his blog 
("Elsevier-funded NY Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney Wants to Deny 
Americans Access to Taxpayer Funded Research" 
<http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=807>).

Again, public comment on access to federally funded research ends this 
Thursday, January 12.

Tags:
open access <http://johnhawks.net/taxonomy/term/429>
journals <http://johnhawks.net/taxonomy/term/364>
politics <http://johnhawks.net/taxonomy/term/359>