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Support growing for immediate open-access policy

Image: h_pampel [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Flickr

Publishers and researchers back rumoured government plan

A rumoured government plan to mandate immediate open access to all papers reporting federally funded research is amassing a growing number of supporters after initially drawing opposition from some publishers and learned societies.

Several publishers, including eLife Sciences Publications, F1000 Research, Frontiers and PLOS, wrote to United States president Donald Trump’s administration on 17 January to express support for such a requirement.

While recognising the relevance of their own business interests, the group suggested a more important factor was that the proposal would bring about “an important change that benefits the American taxpaying public”.

“We support this policy and urge you to put the needs and rights of the research community and American taxpaying public first, and help us serve this community in the way it clearly wishes to be served,” the group wrote.

They criticised an earlier letter of concern published in December 2019 by a group of more than 125 publishers and learned societies, which suggested that the proposal would cost taxpayers more money and somehow delay publication of research results.

Signatories of the 17 January letter said they wanted to “make clear” that American publishers do not uniformly oppose the proposal.

“There is nothing about the immediate availability of research that precludes publishing companies—commercial or non-profit—from continuing to do business if they work hard, innovate, and collaborate,” they wrote.

They added that immediate and open availability of research is an important prerequisite for making research outputs available for analysis using artificial intelligence, which is another stated priority of the Trump administration.

Academics and members of the public also expressed their support for the proposal. A petition started on 20 January by a group comprised mainly of academics had drawn more than 900 signatures at the time this article was published.

“We the undersigned American scientists, publishers, funders, patient advocates, librarians and members of the public endorse a national policy that would ensure that Americans are no longer denied access to the results of research their tax dollars paid for,” the petition says.

“It will bring the benefits of America’s massive investment in basic and applied science to our citizens and companies faster and more effectively than the obsolete system in place today. And it has the potential to save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year.”

Petition signatories expressed a hope that the proposal would help the growing open-access movement gather momentum. They said: “There are now many thriving, multi-million dollar businesses that publish peer reviewed journals that already fully comply with a zero embargo taxpayer access policy, and this policy would inspire the creation of many more.”