Update: Harvard U. has also posted their responses to the RFI
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has responded to eight questions from The White House that are found in the “Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting from Federally Funded Research” RFI.
The responses were sent on January 8, 2012.
Enhancing public access to federally funded research results is a priority for ARL and its member libraries because such policies are integrally tied to and support the mission of higher education and scholarship. ARL believes that extending and enhancing public access policies to federally funded research to other science and technology agencies will drive scientific discovery and innovation, and promote economic growth. Extending enhanced public access policies to other federal agencies is long overdue.
From the Response to Question 1:
There are deep linkages between openly accessible federally funded, peer-reviewed research literature and scientific productivity. Research has shown that open access to research literature provides many benefits to science and discovery. For example, it expands the use of research papers, thus increasing citations and the ability to build on the work of others. Previous studies of over a dozen disciplines have shown that open access articles are cited 50–250% more often that those behind subscription barriers (http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html). Reproducibility and building on the work of others are integral to science, and they are also necessities in this new budget environment.
About Gary Price
