Taxpayer Alliance applauds bill to broaden access to federal resea=

[Jennifer McLennan <jennifer@arl.org>]

For immediate release
June 25, 2009

For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
(202) 296-2296 ext 121

Taxpayer Alliance applauds bill to broaden access to federal
research results

Federal Research Public Access Act introduced today

Washington, DC - Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Cornyn
(R- TX) today introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act
(FRPAA), a bill to ensure free, timely, online access to the
published results of research funded by eleven U.S. federal
agencies. The proposed bill is welcomed by the Alliance for
Taxpayer Access, a coalition of research institutions, consumers,
patients, and others formed to support open public access to
publicly funded research.

FRPAA would require those agencies with annual extramural
research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public
with online access to research manuscripts stemming from such
funding no later than six months after publication in a
peer-reviewed journal.  The bill gives individual agencies
flexibility in choosing the location of the digital repository to
house this content, as long as the repositories meet conditions
for interoperability and public accessibility, and have
provisions for long-term archiving.

"Ready access to published research will advance the frontiers of
knowledge more rapidly, bringing the fruits of federal
expenditure for research to citizens more quickly," said David
Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs at the
Association of Public and Land- grant Universities. "FRPAA
guarantees that access to all - scientists and citizens alike.
This bill balances the public's right to access what it has paid
for, while preserving the time-tested institutions on which
vetting and distribution of scholarly research has long relied."

The bill covers unclassified research funded by agencies
including: 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.

Sir Richard Roberts, Nobel Laureate and Chief Scientific Officer
for New England Biolabs, welcomed the bill, saying, "I support
any measure that will help disseminate the findings of scientific
research in an unimpeded fashion. This bill will provide an
important new resource for scientists in all disciplines to use
in innovative ways. It acknowledges the new reality of how
science is conducted, and provides critical support to help
accelerate research, discovery and innovation.  This is good for
science, and ultimately good for the public."

"FRPAA will pay especially generous dividends to students by
opening access to publically funded research - a significant
portion of which has been unavailable to undergraduate and
graduate students alike," noted Nick Shockey, Student Outreach
Fellow for SPARC and recent graduate of Trinity University, San
Antonio. "This legislation will help ensure that a student's
education is limited only by curiosity rather than by the access
each campus is able to afford."

"We welcome the introduction of this landmark legislation," added
Heather Joseph, spokesperson for the Alliance and Executive
Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition). "This bill reflects the recognition that
expanded access to research results will benefit all citizens.
Every member of the public has a stake in this research. Whether
it is understanding climate change, developing renewable energy
resources, or helping to halt a flu pandemic, these research
results are of critical value to every American taxpayer. We look
forward to working with the wide coalition of supporters of
public access to see this legislation come to fruition."

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access calls on organizations and
individuals to write in support of the bill through the Web site
at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org .

For more information about the Federal Research Public Access
Act, visit http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.


-------------------------------------
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Communications
SPARC
jennifer@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884