![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Normalized_heatmap_of_per-capita_signatures_to_Access2Research_petition_by_U.S._state.png/220px-Normalized_heatmap_of_per-capita_signatures_to_Access2Research_petition_by_U.S._state.png)
Access2Research is a campaign in the United States for academic journal publishing reform led by open access advocates Michael W. Carroll, Heather Joseph, Mike Rossner, and John Wilbanks.[1]
On May 20, 2012, it launched a petition to the White House to "require free access over the Internet to journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research".[2] The White House has committed to issue an official response to such petitions if they reach 25,000 signatures within 30 days.[3] Access2Research reached this milestone within two weeks.[4][5] On February 22, 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and announced an executive directive ordering all US Federal Agencies with research & development budgets over $100M to develop public access policies within twelve months.
The petition builds on previous campaigns asking scholars, publishers, funders, governments and the general public to remove paywalls to publicly funded scholarly research. It follows initiatives previously targeted at academics such as The Cost of Knowledge calling for lower prices for scholarly journals and to promote increased access to scientific information. The campaign refers to the NIH Public Access Policy[6] as an example of a mandate that should be expanded to all federally funded research.[7][8][9][10]
Endorsements
[edit]The campaign's outreach was supported on the first day of its launch by Creative Commons,[11] the Public Library of Science,[12] the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition,[13] RockHealth,[14] Sage Bionetworks,[15] The Cost of Knowledge,[16] the Harvard Open Access Project,[17] the Open Knowledge Foundation,[18] the Open Science Federation,[19] PatientsLikeMe[20] and Lybba.[21]
It has been publicly endorsed by several other organizations, including the Alliance for Taxpayer Access,[22] the Association of College and Research Libraries,[23] the Association of Research Libraries,[24] Arizona State University Libraries,[25] BioSharing,[26] The Center for Scholarly Communication and Digital Curation at Northwestern University,[27] figshare,[28] Genetic Alliance,[29] InTechWeb,[30] Mendeley[31] and the Wikimedia Foundation.[32]
Criticism
[edit]The petition has been criticized by a spokesperson for the Association of American Publishers who said they "oppose government mandates on research publications",[33] whereas Public Library of Science co-founder Michael Eisen referred to the petition as a "compromise" that does not go far enough, pointing out that the NIH policy allows for delayed open access.[33]
See also
[edit]- Access to knowledge movement
- Fair Copyright in Research Works Act
- Federal Research Public Access Act
- Research Works Act
- Academic Spring
References
[edit]- ^ "Access2:Research: About". Access2Research. 2012-04-27. Archived from the original on 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research. | The White House". Wh.gov. 2012-05-13. Archived from the original on 2012-05-23. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "A good problem to have: Raising the signature threshold for White House petitions". whitehouse.gov. 2011-10-03. Archived from the original on January 23, 2017. Retrieved 2012-05-27 – via National Archives.
- ^ "US open-access petition hits 25,000 signatures in two weeks". Research Information. Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
- ^ Neylon, Cameron (4 June 2012). "25000 Signatures in Two Weeks: What Does It Mean?". PLoS Blogs Network. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012.
- ^ "NIH Public Access Policy Details". nih.gov. Archived from the original on 2011-11-01. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
- ^ Taylor, Mike (22 May 2012). "US petition could tip the scales in favour of open access publishing". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Howard, Jennifer (23 May 2012). "Petition urges White House to Require public access to federally financed research". Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Arbesman, Samuel (23 May 2012). "A Petition for Free Online Access of Taxpayer-funded Research". Wired. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Poynder, Richard (25 May 2012). "Open Access: The People's Petition". Open & Shut?. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- ^ "Sign the U.S. Petition to Support Public Access to Publicly Funded Scientific Research". Creative Commons. 20 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Tell the White House to Expand Open Access to Federally Funded Research". Public Library of Science. 20 May 2012. Archived from the original on 20 June 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Sign the White House Petition on Open Access to Research Today!". SPARC. Archived from the original on 2012-07-02. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Join Access2Research and Free Taxpayer-Funded Research". RockHealth. 20 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-04-18. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Sage Bionetworks". Sagebase.org. 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "The Cost of Knowledge". The Cost of Knowledge. 2012-01-21. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Harvard Open Access Project". Cyber.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Petition the White House to Open Up Publicly Funded Research | Open Knowledge Foundation Blog". Open Knowledge Foundation. 2012-05-21. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Open Access Federation to open science". Open Science Federation. Archived from the original on 2012-06-18. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Free Up Research! On Our Way to 25,000 Signatures". blog.patientslikeme.com. 23 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Don't pay twice for biomedical research". Lybba. 20 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Sign the White House Petition on Open Access to Research Today! (Alliance for Taxpayer Access)". Taxpayeraccess.org. 2012-05-21. Archived from the original on 2013-01-12. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "ACRL Urges Librarians to Sign Research Access Petition". Lj.libraryjournal.com. 2012-05-22. Archived from the original on May 25, 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Call to Action: Sign the White House Petition for Public Access to Federally Funded Research". Association of Research Libraries. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Increasing Public Access to Federally Funded Research | The Library Channel". Lib.asu.edu. 2012-05-21. Archived from the original on 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ Sansone, Susanna-A (2012-05-21). "BioSharing: Open access petition - White House's "We the People"". Blog.biosharing.org. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "White House Petition on Open Access | Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation". Cscdc.northwestern.edu. 2012-05-21. Archived from the original on 2013-02-01. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "#OAMonday - A call to action". Figshare.com. 2012-05-21. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Advocacy, Education & Empowerment". Genetic Alliance. 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "To know the importance of providing free access to taxpayer-funded research | InTechWeb Blog". Intechweb.wordpress.com. 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Support free access to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research. #OAMonday | Mendeley Blog". Blog.mendeley.com. 2012-05-21. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "Wikimedia Foundation endorses mandates for free access to publicly funded research — Wikimedia blog". Blog.wikimedia.org. 25 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ a b Corbyn, Zoë (2012). "White House petitioned to make research free to access". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10723. S2CID 167402674.
External links
[edit]- Etherpad list of other organizational supporters of the petition
- Archived copy of official site: "Access2research.org". Archived from the original on 2013-05-23. Retrieved 2018-10-01.