Open Access Policy

See the following -

FASTR Ensures that Publicly Funded Research Belongs to the Public

When taxpayers pay for research, everyone should have access to it. That’s the simple premise of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act of 2015 (S.779, H.R.1477), or FASTR. If enacted, FASTR would keep federally funded research where it belongs, in the hands of the public. Under FASTR, every federal agency that spends more than $100 million on grants for research would be required to adopt an open access policy. Although the bill gives each agency some leeway in adopting a policy appropriate to the types of research it funds, each one would require that published research be available to the public no later than six months after publication.

Four Things We Can Do Now to Unlock the Cure for Cancer

As a community we are capable of working together to achieve greater things. If we marshal our resources to work together, I believe we can unlock the cure for cancer. This is a rare opportunity. We need to change the models and shift our culture towards collaboration. We can’t just tweak around the edges — patients and their families can’t afford to wait. An alternative system, where all publicly-funded research and data are required to be shared would allow authors to unlock their content and data for re-use with a global audience, and co-operate towards new discoveries and analysis.

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Gates Foundation’s Strict Open Access Policy may have Domino Effect

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a major supporter of health and development research, is to introduce an open access policy next month for the studies it funds that goes further than most other research funders. The policy “will enable other researchers to access the latest evidence and draw on it to advance their own research” to help tackle malnutrition, infectious diseases, and child and maternal mortality, writes Trevor Mundel, the foundation’s president of global health, on the organization's website.

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Indian Govt Looks To Provide Free Access To Publicly-Funded Research Works

Riddhi Mukherjee | MEDIANAMA | July 23, 2014

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the Ministry of Science and Technology recently released (pdf) the draft of what is termed as Open Access Policy and has invited comments from the public until July 25, reports The Times of India. Comments can be submitted to [email protected]...

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Open Access 2015: A Year Access Negotiators Edged Closer to the Tipping Point

It’s the year many negotiators got seriously tough on double dipping – charging for both the ability to read (via subscriptions) and for publishing (author processing charges, or APCs). Last year it was France getting tough on the toughest negotiator: Elsevier. This year, the Netherlands took it right to the brink of cutting Elsevier loose. It was summed up by a January headline: “Dutch universities dig in for long fight over open access.” Coming into the new year, other nations were taking up positions about the future they want to see too...Here’s a month-by-month roundup of some of the major action...

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