Hi,
“Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the
sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed
Elsevier.”^1
Demand Progress’ co-founder Aaron Swartz published the Guerilla Open
Access Manifesto in 2008 that famously began: “Information is power.”
Swartz described how "the world's entire scientific and cultural heritage,
published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being
digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.”
14 years later, the fight for free and open access to information
continues.
Last week, the Biden Administration took a big step towards realizing the
goals of the Open Access Movement when it moved to make all federally
funded research publicly available as soon as it’s published.^2 Now,
Congress should pass a law ensuring the provision goes into effect ASAP!
[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition: Congress must make sure all federally funded
research publications are made available online to all without delay!
ADD YOUR NAME
Public access to publicly-funded research should’ve been a no-brainer. But
it wasn’t, because the science publishing industry and private
corporations profit from building paywalls around research findings,
keeping it from the public for as long as possible and forcing scientists
to pay onerous rent for access.
Since 2013, federal agencies have been required to make federally funded
research public after it’s been published for one year. That’s one year of
corporate welfare charged at the public’s expense. The new White House
memo represents a major opportunity to end the wait for universal access
to research that could enable life-saving breakthroughs in medicine and
climate research, and boost the economy.^3
In Aaron Swartz’s words:
“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to
keep it for themselves."
That needs to change. The first step is full implementation of the White
House directive.
[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition: Congress must push federal agencies to require the
findings from federally funded research be available online to all without
delay!
Thanks for taking action,
Izzi and the team at Demand Progress
[ [link removed] ]DONATE
Sources:
1. Internet Archive, “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto,” [ [link removed] ]July 2008.
2. White House, “Memorandum on Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable
Access to Federally Funded Research.” [ [link removed] ]August 25, 2022.
3. Science.org, “White House requires immediate public access to all
U.S.-funded research papers by 2025,” [ [link removed] ]August 26, 2022.
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