Challenges, Impact and Opportunities Regarding Open Access to Federally-Funded Research

July 26, 2010 - PRLog -- This Thursday, July 29, a hearing entitled "Public Access to Federally-Funded Research," will be held by the Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives. From the notice:

“The hearing will examine the state of public access to federally-funded research in science, technology, and medicine. The hearing will assess and delineate the complex issues surrounding public access policies. The hearing will afford an opportunity for representatives from the areas of publishing, science and research, education and patient care to provide perspective on challenges, potential impact and opportunities regarding increased access.”

This hearing continues a trend of increased government interest towards open public access to federally-funded research. The National Association of Graduate-Professional Students, Inc. (NAGPS) has been actively lobbying for open access to publicly-funded research and has submitted a position statement detailing the benefits of open access to both the graduate and professional student community as well as the American public:

"Open access facilitates the openness, transparency, dissemination, and accessibility of research results. The potential of open access is to allow research paid for by government issued, taxpayer dollars, to be released from the paywalls that quarantine these results to only elite institutions. Instead, K-12, college, professional and graduate students, scientists, corporations, and the public will be able to freely obtain and share the most current results of the academic community."

This Thursday we will continue our ongoing effort to urge Congress to take action and support open access to research. This topic was an area of focus in the NAGPS- coordinated Fall 2009 & Spring 2010 Legislative Action Days (LAD) events where delegates from numerous member universities held over 130 legislative and staff visits. Open access and the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) will remain top issues for our upcoming October LAD event.

The hearing will be held Thursday, July 29, at 2:00 PM in Rayburn House Office Building, room 2154.

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The National Association of Graduate-Professional Students, Inc. (NAGPS) represents the interests of 2.6 million graduate and professional students nationwide. NAGPS provides resources, support, and connections to member organizations, and advocates on their behalf, both locally and nationally.

For more information on NAGPS, visit http://nagps.org