Fw: Legislation Would Expand Access to Publicly Financed Scientific Research Findings

[Linda J Herman <ljherman1@xxxxxxxx>]

I thought this was an interesting idea.
The Public Library of Science web site is at


from kaisernetwork.org Daily Reports.


Legislation Would Expand Access to Publicly Financed Scientific Research
Findings

" The Public Library of Science on June 26 is expected to announce
legislation that would make federally funded scientific research
available to the public, bypassing the current system of access to
journals through paid subscriptions, the New York Times reports.  The
legislation, called the "Public Access to Science Act" and introduced by
Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn.), would place the results of research
primarily funded by the federal government into the public domain,
meaning that access could not be prohibited by copyright law, according
to Dr. Michael Eisen, a co-founder of the library, whose members include
doctors, scientists and researchers.  The measure will also call on
federal agencies to improve access to their research results.  Sabo,
noting that the public pays about $45 billion annually through taxes to
finance the research, said, "It defies logic to collectively pay for our
medical research, only to privatize its profitability and availability"
(Leary, New York Times, 6/26).  The movement to expand access to research
studies has "struggled to gain traction" because scientists are
"reluctant to abandon the prestige journals," in which publication is
"integral to tenure and promotion decisions," according to the Wall
Street Journal (Begley, Wall Street Journal, 6/26). "


---------------------------
Please come and visit our site for future daily reports, or sign up for
our Email-Alert mailing list to automatically receive future reports at


Daily Health Policy report


Daily HIV/AIDS Report


Daily Reproductive Health Report


-- Kaisernetwork.org, is a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation
editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn