Announcing the Alliance for Taxpayer Access to Research

The Breadth and Basis of the Need for Open Access I am forwarding the press release below concerning an excellent new alliance of tax-payers for open access spear-headed by SPARC. This alliance is focused on biomedical research that is funded by NIH and is based on its potential direct interest and usefulness to the tax-payer. This direct lay interest in and benefit from biomedical research is an extremely important and valid aspect of some forms of research -- not just biomedical research, but also other areas of research that might be of direct relevance to the tax-paying public that supports it: general public access to the research output in certain areas of biology, physical sciences, engineering and technology, social sciences, and even some forms of humanities research could confer great direct benefits. But let us not forget that most research is highly specialized and often technical, and written for the use of other specialized researchers. This of course does not mean that it should not all be openly accessible to the general public as well! But the benefits -- to the tax-payer -- of making that research open access go far, far beyond the benefits from the tax-payer's being able to consult it directly: For the reason the tax-payer funds research is in order to generate research progress. Most research doesn't turn into something that can be applied and used for public benefit immediately after it is done and reported! Research progress is cumulative and collaborative, and often slow, and it is *researchers* who most need immediate access to one another's output. It is the tax-payer who benefits if researchers do have this access to one another's research output, and the tax-payer (and research progress itself) that loses if researchers do not have that access to one another's research output. If research were funded only to be performed, written up, and then put into a desk drawer aftwerward, then there would be nothing to show for the tax-payer's investment. That is why we have the mandate to "publish or perish." It is not enough to fund research, conduct the research and write it up. The write-up then has to be peer-reviewed by a journal, and then be made *public* though *publication* in that journal, so that other researchers (and, when it is of direct relevance and interest, also the general public) can access and use its findings. Tax-payers use some funded research directly in order to improve their lives; but researchers can use even funded research that does not directly improve our lives to build on that research and eventually advance it to where it does improve our lives. So in weighing the purpose and importance of open access, it is critical to realize that most research needs to be made openly accessible for reasons *other* than those in the special case where it might be of direct interest and relevance to the tax-payer to access, read and use it. Open access is needed not just for biomedical research, but for all research -- all 2,500,000 yearly articles published in the world's 24,000 peer-reviewed journals, across all fields -- biomedical and nonbiomedical, scientific and scholarly, pure and applied. So in reading the press release below, please do not conclude that open access is needed only for biomedical research, let alone only for biomedical research funded only by NIH! The urgency of having access to research that might be relevant to our health and that we have paid to have conducted is a dramatic example of one rationale for open access, for one (small) portion of the world's scientific and scholarly research output. But it is only the tip of the iceberg! http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/399… http://www.arl.org/sparc/core/index.asp?page=o31 Stevan Harnad ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:06:47 -0400 From: Rick Johnson <rick(a)arl.org> To: SPARC Institutional Repositories Discussion List <SPARC-IR(a)arl.org> For Immediate Release Tuesday, August 24, 2004 SPARC Contact: John D'Ignazio, 202-296-2296 x121 TAXPAYERS SUPPORT OPEN ACCESS TO NIH RESEARCH Public Interest Advocates Join Forces to Support Congress and NIH Leadership Washington, DC (August 24, 2004) An unprecedented coalition of public interest groups today announced the formation of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access. The Alliance will urge the National Institutes of Health as well as Congress to ensure that peer-reviewed articles on taxpayer-funded research at NIH become fully accessible and available on line and at no extra cost to the American public. The Alliance formation precedes the public interest meeting slated for Tuesday, August 31 where NIH will receive input on how to improve public access to the results of NIH-funded biomedical research. The Alliance is an informal coalition of libraries, patient and health policy advocates, and other stakeholders who support reforms that will make publicly funded biomedical research accessible to the public. Details and FAQs on the Alliance may be found at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org Today the vast majority of research funded with public dollars is available only through increasingly costly journal subscriptions (often costing thousands of dollars annually for a single journal), institutional licenses (more than a million dollars annually for many universities), or per article purchases (as much as $30 per article). Alliance supporters believe the current system of subscription-based access to scientific research is economically unsustainable and effectively impedes the dissemination and use of research that has been paid for with public dollars. Alliance supporter Sharon Terry, President and CEO of the Genetic Alliance, said, "This consumer-centered approach is a long-overdue means by which to enhance public health education, speed the translation of genetic advances into quality, affordable health care, and inform and empower patients in their health care decisions." "It is sometimes suggested that this information is not available to the "homemaker in Iowa" because she is ill equipped to deal with this information. We know, from our 600 members - disease-specific advocacy organizations . that the homemaker has many resources to help her use that information. This access is critical; we know first-hand that clinicians are unable to keep up with information on 6000 rare diseases, and patients must be the bridge to new knowledge." Acknowledging the key role of individuals volunteering for clinical tests, Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, said that, "Open access is consistent with cornerstone principles of respect for persons when conducting research on human subjects and will contribute to the willingness of individuals to participate in subsequent research because they have full, shared, knowledge of results." "In the digital age, with the extraordinary public benefits of cutting-edge research, it is counter-productive for there to be costly barriers preventing the fullest possible availability of quality information about current research findings,' said Rick Johnson, spokesman for the group. Johnson also serves as director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), a member of the new Alliance. 'We agree with leaders at NIH and on Capitol Hill that the status quo is unacceptable when most American taxpayers do not have access to the reports on biomedical research conducted with U.S. Government funds." Barbara Redman, Dean of the College of Nursing at Wayne State University, echoed concerns of educators within the Alliance: "Access to emerging NIH-funded medical research is invaluable to the transfer of knowledge in every instructional setting. Faculty and students alike benefit from access to biomedical reports in all fields, and we applaud NIH leadership in furthering this initiative." Dr. Richard Roberts, 1993 Nobel Laureate in medicine and currently with New England Biolabs, added his support: "Open access to the scientific literature is the single most important advance that we can make in the distribution of research results to scientists and the public alike. I find that a majority of my fellow scientists and Nobel Laureates agree that this new initiative is groundbreaking, long overdue and will ensure that we all can read about the results of our government's support of research. I am heartened that taxpayers representing broad stakeholders in this issue have joined forces to endorse the principle of open access to the scientific literature we produce through our investment of public dollars. This is good for science and good for the American public." Members of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, at formation (in alphabetical order), include: AIDS Action Baltimore AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition American Association of Law Libraries American Library Association American Medical Student Association Arthritis Foundation Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries Association of College & Research Libraries Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs Association of Research Libraries Association of Southeastern Research Libraries Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease and Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis Alliance Boston College Libraries Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation Coalition for Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue Colorado State University Libraries Conquer Fragile X Syndrome Down Syndrome Treatment and Research Foundation Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered Genetic Alliance International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association IsoDicentric 15 Exchange, Advocacy & Support Medical Library Association National Alliance for Autism Research National Coalition for PKU & Allied Disorders National Fragile X Foundation National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association, Inc. New England Biolabs Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Prader-Willi Syndrome Association Public Knowledge PXE International Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Spina Bifida Association of America Tourette Syndrome Association University of Connecticut Libraries Wayne State University College of Nursing