The research library community, led by ARL and SPARC, have helped craft sensible public policy that does not threaten the scholarly publishing community while providing open access to the results of taxpayer-funded research. With new, progressive leadership in Washington, the U.S. has an opportunity to lead the world in this important arena.

I'm 100% behind this. I'm a grad student at Caltech, where 95% of the research is publicly funded, and 10% is publicly available. And that's BETTER than most universities! The taxpayers pay for research twice: once for the research itself, and once for themselves (or even the researchers!) to read it.

Also, specifically, please oppose HR 6845, which would drastically hurt open-access.

Open and complete access to all data generated by taxpayer financed projects is essential to restore confidence in the work that is being done at many federal, state and local agencies. It's important that we go one step further than just creating many isolated silos of open data. I would strongly recommend a more architectural approach to making sure that all data is easily accessible.

Heather Joseph stated that this is the best way to leverage our investment in basic scientific research "to its fullest advantage." Part of that "fullest advantage" is the benefit it brings to other countries as well as to the U.S. As a former Foreign Service officer, I see this as an inexpensive and eminently useful way to expand our foreign aid in a completely egalitarian fashion.

Access to the best and most up-to-date research is a key to developing a robust 21st Century economy. The American People through the government provide the "seed money" for a significant part of this research. The People deserve prompt and easy access to this important information.

A terrific position. The analogy to the NIH policy is good and relevant but the NIH policy provicdes an embargo period of 12 months, significantly longer than other similar policies by other govt. agencies (non-US) and even many publishers. I would urge for an embargo period of no more than 6 months.

University researchers write the articles for free, they serve as reviewers for free and are paid very little or nothing to serve as editors. Yet publishers charge universities unconscionable amounts for access to the research they produce. The internet makes this outdated and unfair system obsolete. The US should demand that the research it funds be accessible to all.

This proposal is the best way to ensure that the collective, multi-billion dollar investment that U.S. taxpayers make in basic scientific is leveraged to its fullest advantage. Accelerating advances in health care, sustainable energy and understanding climate change would be fueled by taking this simple step.

I support the recommendation and suggest extending the requirement to all peer-reviewed journal articles by researchers at publicly funded universities and research institutions, in all scientific and scholarly fields, whether or not the research itself is funded. This will encourage all universities and research institutions wordwide to adopt open access mandates for all their research output.

Perhaps it would be acceptable to add the 27,427 votes cast for the similar proposal made to the EU in January 2006? This petition also included votes from 1343 institutes. At least the CTO should be made aware of this significant support from the research communities around the world.

This seems to follow the same general trend as other suggestions:
-open gov't data
-100% free sw
-open standard/device/os
-open election code
Maybe they could all be counted as a single "open gov't policy" suggestion.

A great idea. Especially beneficial to researchers in the developing countries. A sure way to keep USA the top ranked science nation. The open access movement is gaining momentum and the Obama administration can give it a big boost by mandating open access for all publicly funded research.