Finally, taxpayers will be able to read the research they fund
Very good news: the Biden administration, through its Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), has just announced a directive and memorandum that will require all academic journals to provide free and open access, without any paywall, in readable formats that allow for use and reuse, to all research that has been funded in whole or in part through public funds.
The new policy, which replaces a previous one that allowed such publications to be kept behind a paywall for one year, will have to be fully implemented before the end of 2025, and will allow easier access to a large number of research resources in a wide variety of areas, especially for people who do not have such access through their university or research center subscriptions. According to OSTP Director Alondra Nelson:
“The American people fund tens of billions of dollars of cutting-edge research annually. There should be no delay or barrier between the American public and the returns on their investments in research.”
Efforts to achieve this open access to all publicly funded research began more than 30 years ago when some university libraries began highlighting the growing cost of journal subscriptions, while health science researchers protested having to pay to access research they believed could save lives. But the…
