Re: NYT on Cornyn-Lieberman

[Tom Williams <twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu>]

Colleagues,

I think articles funded all or in part by the Government should 
be available to all.  The 6-month "embargo" should protect the 
subscription numbers as few serious scholars or researchers will 
want to wait that long.  Further, the taxpayers are funding much 
of this research so why should we be denied access?  When the 
publishing industry hacks, also know as lobbyists, get a crack at 
the legislators it is quite likely that they will be able 
"influence" enough of them to defeat the bill anyway.  I applaud 
this non-partisan bill as a step in the right direction of "true" 
open access.

Tom Williams, Director


Ann Okerson wrote:

> Of possible interest.
>
> --------------------
>
> May 8, 2006
> Some Publishers of Scholarly Journals Dislike Bill to Require Online
> Access to Articles
> By SARA IVRY
>
> Scholarly publishing has never been a big business. But it could take
> a financial hit if a proposed federal law is enacted, opening
> taxpayer-financed research to the public, according to some critics in
> academic institutions.
>
> The Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006, proposed last week by
> Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, and John
> Cornyn, Republican of Texas, would require 11 government agencies to
> publish online any articles that contained research financed with
> federal grants. If enacted, the measure would require that the
> articles be accessible online without charge within six months of
> their initial publication in a scholarly journal.
>
> "Not everybody has a library next door. I don't mean to be flippant
> about it, but this gives access to anybody," said Donald Stewart, a
> spokesman for Senator Cornyn. "The genesis of this was his interest in
> open government and finding ways to reform our Freedom of Information
> laws and taxpayer access to federally funded work."
>
> Some members of the scholarly publishing industry are wary of the
> legislation. Howard H. Garrison, the director of public affairs at the
> Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, an
> organization whose members collectively publish approximately 60
> journals, argued that the legislation would weaken the connection
> between the journals and their readers and that journals could lose
> subscribers and ad revenue if articles were available online.
>
> "People won't be able to gauge how many people will be reading the
> articles and that has ramifications for advertising, promotion," he
> said. "Does it reach 1,000 scientists, 2,000 or 50? If the articles
> are on a government Web site, your readership may be halved."
>
> Scientific data is easily misinterpreted, said Joann Boughman,
> executive vice president of the American Society of Human Genetics,
> publisher of The American Journal of Human Genetics. "Consumers
> themselves are saying, 'We have the right to know these things as
> quickly as we can.' That is not incorrect. However, wherever there is
> a benefit, there is a risk associated with it."
>
> A year ago, the National Institutes of Health introduced a policy
> encouraging scientists who had received N.I.H. financing to submit
> published articles within a year to a central database at the National
> Library of Medicine. Fewer than 4 percent of researchers have complied.
>
> Catherine McKenna Ribeiro, the deputy press secretary for Senator
> Lieberman, said mandatory compliance would "foster information
> sharing, prevent duplication of research efforts, and generate new
> lines of scientific inquiry." She said in an e-mail message that the
> bill would, in effect, allow agencies to better monitor what
> publications were a result of their grants.
>
> Betsy L. Humphreys, the deputy director of the National Library of
> Medicine, said she was not surprised that researchers had not always
> complied with N.I.H.'s request. "I think it's like anything else in
> the lives of busy people who prefer to spend their time doing
> science," she said.
>
> ####
>
> Copyright 2006 The New York Times


--
Thomas L. Williams, A.H.I.P., M.S.L.S.
Director, Biomedical Libraries
University of South Alabama
College of Medicine
BLB 326b
Mobile, Alabama 36688-0002
Tel. (251)460-6885
Fax. (251)460-6958
twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu


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