The FASTR Act was introduced into both the House of Representatives and the Senate last week, sponsored by a bipartisan group of legislators: Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Kevin Yoder (R-KS).
FASTR will require federal agencies that spend at least $100 million/year to fund extramural research to make the products of their funding, specifically peer reviewed, scholarly research articles, open access within six months of publication.
FASTR will provide near-immediate access to taxpayer-funded research, and will impact major federal agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency.
For more information about FASTR, please see the FAQ developed by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition or the Alliance for Taxpayer Access website.