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Taxpayer Alliance Supports Senate Bill
(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