Kansas City, Missouri - The Greater Western Library Alliance
(GWLA) today endorsed the "Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006,"
a bill introduced 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 the electronic manuscripts of
peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from their research publicly
available via the Internet. Agencies affected by this legislation would
include the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National
Institutes of Health (NIH).
"The Greater Western Library Alliance has long advocated broader
public access to scientific research funded by federal tax dollars,"
said Adrian W. Alexander, Executive Director of the Alliance. "The
legislation proposed by Senators Cornyn and Lieberman would facilitate
access to this critical information greatly for scholars, students, and
the general public alike." The Greater Western Library Alliance (www.gwla.org)
is a non-profit consortium of research libraries in the Midwest and
Western U.S. that has been active in a variety of collaborative library
and scholarly electronic publishing projects since 1998.
Under this legislation, researchers funded by one of the federal
agencies earmarked in the bill would be required to submit to the
agency an electronic copy of the final manuscript that has been
accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Manuscripts would
be preserved in a stable digital repository maintained by that agency
or in another suitable repository that permits free public access,
interoperability, and long-term preservation. Free, online access to
each taxpayer-funded manuscript would be available as soon as possible,
and no later than six months after the article has been published in a
peer-reviewed journal.
The purpose of this new public policy is to provide better access to
federally-funded scientific literature that is now available only via
costly journal subscriptions, institutional licenses, and per-article
purchases. Other types of information, such as classified research,
research that results in works that generate revenue or royalties for
the author (such as books), or patentable discoveries (to the extent
necessary to protect copyright or a patent) would not be covered by the
legislation. Similarly, information used to produce the final
manuscript, including lab notes, preliminary data analyses, author
notes, etc., would not be covered.
The following agencies have extramural budgets in excess of $100
million and would therefore be required to make their non-classified
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 National
Science Foundation.
The Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) represents 31
research libraries in 16 states in the Midwest and Western United
States. Its program initiatives include an array of resource sharing,
scholarly communication and continuing education projects. GWLA is a
co-founder of BioOne,
a non-profit, electronic publishing enterprise in the biological and
environmental sciences. For more information on GWLA, go to www.gwla.org. | 
