It’s important to note that federal research dollars drive much of the research and development work at universities and research centers. The U.S. spends nearly $60 billion on research each year. That means that taxpayers are supporting the important and vital work of investigating new medical treatments, identifying environmentally conscious means of transportation, improving our infrastructure, and developing technological innovations.
In 2009, the NIH adopted the first open access initiative for federally-funded research and the policy is in full force today, with great success. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives introduced the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), to “accelerate scientific discovery and fuel innovation by making articles reporting on publicly funded scientific research freely accessible online for anyone to read and build upon.”
For more information about FASTR, visit the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition’s Background and FAQ sites. If you’re interested in learning about a specific agency’s current policies for sharing their funded research, check out this resource. To advocate for FASTR, contact your senator or representative, and help open up research.