Taxpayer Alliance Supports Senate Bill

[Jennifer Heffelfinger <jennifer@arl.org>]

(Please forward)

For Immediate Release
May 2, 2006

Contact:
Jennifer Heffelfinger
jennifer@arl.org
(202) 202-296-2296 x121


TAXPAYER ALLIANCE SUPPORTS SENATE BILL BROADENING ACCESS TO 
FEDERAL RESEARCH

Cornyn-Lieberman Bill Requires Key Federal Funders to Post 
Research on Internet

Bill Introduced on First Anniversary of NIH Public Access Policy 
Implementation

Washington, DC May 2, 2006 The Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA) 
gives full support to the Federal Research Public Access Act of 
2006, introduced today by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Joseph 
Lieberman (D-CT).  The bill requires federal agencies that fund 
over $100 million in annual external research to make electronic 
manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from their 
research publicly available via the Internet.

The expanded access to research called for by this bill will help 
accelerate true innovation in science and medicine, said Heather 
Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and 
Academic Resources Coalition, an ATA founding member). The 
public's interest is clear; whether it is speeding a response to 
a potential flu pandemic, developing energy alternatives or 
putting the brakes on global warming, access to publicly funded 
science is more critical than ever. Joseph added, The Alliance is 
encouraged by Congressional leaders who agree that we can do much 
more to leverage the taxpayers' return on federal investment in 
these essential areas.

ATA coalition members noted that the legislation's introduction 
coincides with the first anniversary of the implementation of the 
NIH Public Access Policy the first regulatory effort to open 
access to taxpayer-funded research on the Internet through the 
National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central database.

ATA members include the Genetic Alliance, Parent Project Muscular 
Dystrophy, the Christopher Reeve Foundation, and 67 other 
patient, academic, research, and publishing entities that support 
expanded public access to the results of federally funded 
research. We support this bill, said Sharon Terry, director of 
Genetic Alliance, because it provides a mechanism that will allow 
the results of our investment in science to be shared shared 
among collaborating scientists, physicians, students, and 
patients.  There is no longer any excuse for our failure to give 
all stakeholders in the scientific enterprise access to all 
scientific information, so that discovery and innovation are 
transformed.

Public access to research expands shared knowledge across 
scientific fields and is the best path for accelerating 
multi-disciplinary breakthroughs in research, said Richard J. 
Roberts, a Nobel Prize laureate and Research Director at New 
England Biolabs. As a scientist and a taxpayer, I support this 
bill because it lifts barriers that hinder, delay, or block the 
spread of scientific knowledge supported by federal tax dollars.

The Greater Western Library Alliance has long advocated broader 
public access to scientific research funded by federal tax 
dollars, and the legislation proposed by Senators Cornyn and 
Lieberman will facilitate access to this critical information for 
scholars, students, and the general public, said Adrian W. 
Alexander, Executive Director of the Alliance, which represents 
31 research libraries. Our members support free access to 
research and are looking forward to contacting their 
representatives in Congress to voice their opinion on this issue.

The following agencies have extramural budgets in excess of $100 
million and under this legislation would be required to make 
their research publicly accessible: Department of Agriculture, 
Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of 
Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human 
Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of 
Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science 
Foundation.

For more information, visit http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

###

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of stakeholders 
who support reforms that will make publicly funded research 
accessible to the public. The Alliance was formed in 2004 
specifically to urge that peer-reviewed articles on 
taxpayer-funded research at NIH become fully accessible and 
available online at no extra cost to the American public. Details 
on the Alliance may be found at www.taxpayeraccess.org.

-------------------------------------
Jennifer Heffelfinger
Communications Manager
SPARC
jennifer@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
www.arl.org/sparc