February 14, 2013
TO: Directors of ARL Libraries
FROM: Prue Adler
RE: Legislation Promoting Public Access to Federally Funded Research Introduced
Summary:
Today, members of the House and Senate introduced the “Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act of 2013” or FASTR. The bill, similar to the Federal
Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), includes provisions that would
enable digital reuse of publicly funded research and would ensure free,
timely, online access to the published results of research
funded by federal science and technology agencies. Provisions in this
bill constitute an important step forward that reflects both how
research is conducted and growing community practice. This is a request
for you to contact your House and Senate delegations
and ask that they co-sponsor FASTR. I will provide you with bill
numbers once available, likely as soon as tomorrow.
Background: FASTR
would require those agencies with annual extramural research budgets of
$100 million or more to provide the public with online access to
research manuscripts (or final
published articles under certain circumstances) stemming from such
funding no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed
journal. Within one year of enactment of FASTR, these agencies are to
implement a public access policy and to the extent
practicable, agencies should follow common procedures for the
collection and deposition of research papers. 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, public accessibility and
long-term preservation. An important change from past bills includes the
need for agencies to provide, “ research papers…in formats and under
terms that enable productive reuse, including computational
analysis by state-of-the-art technologies.”
This is a request for you to contact
members of your delegation and ask that they co-sponsor this
legislation. If your Senator or Representative co-sponsored the
legislation, please thank them! Co-sponsors include: Sens. Cornyn
(R-TX) and Wyden (D-OR) and Reps. Doyle (D-PA), Lofgren (D-CA) and
Yoder (R-KS). Specific information about the legislation is included
below. My thanks in advance for your assistance in garnering additional
support for this legislation. Please let me know
if you have any questions. Thank you!
Key provisions include:
Every federal agency and
department with an annual extramural research budget of $100 million or
more will implement a public access policy that is consistent with and
advances the federal purpose of the respective
agency. Agencies would have one year from enactment of the legislation
to develop implementation policies, which would be promulgated to
affected researchers at the appropriate time. Each agency shall:
· Require each researcher – funded
totally or partially by the agency – to submit to the agency an
electronic copy of the final, electronic manuscript that has been
accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
· Ensure that the manuscript is
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.
· Require that free, online access to
each manuscript be available as soon as possible, and no later than six
months after the article has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
·
Provide research papers in formats and
under terms that enable productive reuse, including computational
analysis by state-of-the-art technologies.
· Report to Congress each year on the
effectiveness of the agency public access policy and examine whether
such papers should be available via a “royalty-free copyright license
that is available to the public and permits the
reuse of those papers,” in effect by a CC-BY license.
This legislation applies to:
· Any researcher employed by a
federal agency with an annual research budget exceeding $100 million who
publishes an article (will be public domain) based on the work done for
the funding agency in a peer-reviewed journal.
· Any researcher funded by a federal
agency with an annual research budget exceeding $100 million who
publishes an article based on the funded research in a peer-reviewed
journal.
This legislation does not cover:
· The public access policy does not
apply to laboratory notes, preliminary data analyses, author notes,
phone logs, research progress reports presented at professional meetings
or other information used to produce the final
manuscript.
· The policy does not apply to
classified research. Research that results in works that generate
revenue or royalties for the author (such as books), or patentable
discoveries, are exempt to the extent necessary to protect
copyright or a patent.
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