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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__news.sciencemag.org_policy_2015_03_nsf-2Dunveils-2Dplan-2Dmake-2Dscientific-2Dpapers-2Dfree&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=G4SIHc9O8GC_DZss0AWX93hFCw7tMZjX2CBRfYYDkgA&e=">http://news.sciencemag.org/policy/2015/03/nsf-unveils-plan-make-scientific-papers-free</a><br>
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The National Science
Foundation (NSF) today<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nsf.gov_news_special-5Freports_public-5Faccess_&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=tHgg99OKG3cn9dglBWZDAL-fqi0AhC2wpqmUwUXLf7A&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">released a
long-anticipated policy</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that
will require its grantees to make their peer-reviewed research
papers freely available within 12 months of publication in a
journal. The agency is not creating its own public archive of
full-text papers, but instead will send those searching for papers
to publishers’ own websites.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(34,
34, 34); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Roboto, Arial,
sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight:
300; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.6666660308838px;
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text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although that’s what most
observers expected, it’s not what open-access advocates hoped for.
“I’m disappointed,” says Heather Joseph, executive director of the
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), a
Washington, D.C.–based group which represents academic libraries.
But scientific publishers who worry that full-text archives will
harm journal revenues praised the plan. “This is a very good way
to do things because it minimizes the cost to taxpayers without
having to duplicate existing infrastructure,” says Frederick
Dylla, CEO of the American Institute of Physics and a board member
of a<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__news.sciencemag.org_2013_06_scientific-2Dpublishers-2Doffer-2Dsolution-2Dwhite-2Dhouses-2Dpublic-2Daccess-2Dmandate&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=GcTWPzslphblnT6GJ868IQ9vdBq6JZ__rM1BGqMfDFw&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">coalition of
publishers that runs CHORUS</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Clearinghouse for the
Open Research of the United States), a system for providing links
to papers on journal’s sites. (The coalition includes AAAS, which
publishes<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="box-sizing: border-box;">Science</em>Insider.)<br>
</p>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">Despite some
grumbling, today’s NSF announcement marks a milestone: It
means that essentially all of the major U.S. federal science
agencies now have a public-access policy. That reflects a push
starting in the late 1990s by some scientists and activists to
make the results of taxpayer-funded research freely available
to the public. Since 2008, the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) has required its grantees to submit their accepted
manuscripts to its PubMed Central repository, which posts
full-text manuscripts online within 12 months of publication.
And in February 2013, the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__news.sciencemag.org_2013_02_white-2Dhouse-2Dunveils-2Dlong-2Dawaited-2Dpublic-2Daccess-2Dpolicy&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=t99_iddRcREnaHZejQ2s0P0F5hPtiwQKF9y5K1bioEg&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">ordered
science agencies to come up with similar policies</a>.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;"><span
style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.538em;">However,
the White House did not specify if agencies should create
their own full-text paper archives or find other solutions.
Federal officials were heeding concerns from many publishers
that PubMed Central infringes on their copyright and that
advertising and other revenues would drop if readers were
not directed to journals’ own websites.</span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">NSF does not
plan to build its own version of PubMed Central. Instead, the
agency will work with the Department of Energy (DOE) to create
a repository for NSF-funded papers by using an existing DOE
system called PAGES (Public Access Gateway for Energy and
Science). The NSF repository will contain abstracts, authors,
the journal issue, and other metadata. No more than 12 months
after a paper’s publication, the repository will provide a
link to the full-text paper on the publisher’s website or, if
that is not available, to a PDF of the final manuscript hosted
in a separate, full-text DOE archive. It will be a “dark
archive,” however—it will be invisible to the public and exist
only to preserve articles long term.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">In the
future, NSF may allow access to papers through other
repositories, such as PubMed Central and those run by
universities. But for now, the system will be quite similar to<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__news.sciencemag.org_policy_2014_08_u-2Ds-2Denergy-2Ddepartment-2Dmake-2Dresearchers-2Dpapers-2Dfree&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=aGSiOpmMmfPupIqs0vQhclLFhT7X7jr0IgCayTXj2CM&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">DOE’s own
public-access plan announced last August</a>.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">The problem,
Joseph says, is that providing access through publishers’
websites means that text and data mining across articles will
be hindered by different journal policies and formats. “I just
worry about having another subset of federally funded articles
resident on publishers’ websites where we rely on those
websites for any kind of text or data mining, then a PDF in a
dark archive that we can’t do anything with,” Joseph says.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">But Dylla
says it’s a better system, because it points readers to the
most authoritative version of a paper. Publishers are working
on a way of allowing full-text and data mining across all of
their journals, but there still aren’t many researchers doing
that kind of study, he says. (An NSF representative says the
agency “is exploring ways to enable these kinds of operations”
while still “protecting the integrity of the systems and
collections.”)</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">NSF plans to
launch the repository by the end of 2015 for voluntary
submissions. In January 2016, the agency’s policy will become
a requirement for papers resulting from proposals submitted
after that date. After they deposit their papers in the
DOE-run archive—either the final accepted manuscript or the
published paper—researchers must include the paper’s unique
identifier when they submit research proposals and reports to
their program officers, or else the paper won’t count. (The
policy also covers conference proceedings.)</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">NSF says
that because the policy is not retroactive and NSF grants run
for several years, it may be 5 years before all active awards
are covered.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">Several
other science agencies are planning full-text archives<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.arl.org_news_community-2Dupdates_3532-2Dahrq-2Dnasa-2Dusda-2Drelease-2Dplans-2Dfor-2Dpublic-2Daccess-2Dto-2Dfunded-2Dresearch&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=w9sk0zF2UGvgH7ayGKejgI5VcQPYd1mDtlY9EAB68d0&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">along the
lines of PubMed Central</a>. NASA is working with NIH to
create a “NASA-branded” version of PubMed Central for the
space agency. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture is
building a full-text paper archive called PubAg. The
Department of Defense, which<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sparc.arl.org_blog_dod-2Dreleases-2Ddraft-2Dpublic-2Daccess-2Dplan&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=tq4tcpi-nTDz2yEyqsjyjfRlRyjyUjqn1jECjct-kvc&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">announced
its draft public-access policy this week</a>, is creating a
public repository that will include all full-text manuscripts,
as well as links to articles on publishers’ websites. (Other
agency policies are listed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.chorusaccess.org_resources_us-2Dagency-2Dpublic-2Daccess-2Dplans_&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=SbfJSeydGLY5HbUXRIFHbzYu0vw_nkLzuy-npQznG4o&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">here</a>.)</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">A few
science agencies haven’t yet announced their public-access
policies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;">Meanwhile,
SPARC is cheering the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ktvz.com_news_wyden-2Dseeks-2Dbetter-2Dpublic-2Daccess-2Dto-2Dfederal-2Dresearch_31869996&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=lRkRobO4GV4nrr7qyzxVMQis4OZqrx6hm9yM7nVLraQ&e=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 67, 118);
text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">reintroduction
in the House of Representatives and Senate today week of a
bill, known as the FASTR (Fair Access to Science and
Technology Research) Act</a>, which would shorten the
required embargo period for sharing federally funded research
papers from 12 months to just 6 months.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem;"><em
style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing:
border-box; font-weight: bold;">*Clarification, 19 March,
10:58 a.m.:</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A
statement about why it will take 5 years for all NSF awards
to be covered by the policy has been clarified.</em></p>
</div>
</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ellen Paul
Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ellen.paul@verizon.net">ellen.paul@verizon.net</a>
"Providing Scientific Information about Birds<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nmnh.si.edu_BIRDNET&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pMQFCooW4wPT9NUa0mcuDxcbfi_PeBgOTiX65LdPYCU&s=iUTmmQluIvvuq3gfnfRKc9AvmwXmZ2G75GwU_tOZeXA&e=">"
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET"</a>
</pre>
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