SPARC has released a statement opposing the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science and Technology Act.
Here's an excerpt:
Specifically, Section 303 would:
- Slow the pace of scientific discovery by restricting public access to articles reporting on federally funded research for up to three years after initial publication. This stands in stark contrast to the policies in use around the world, which call for maximum embargo periods of no more than six to 12 months.
- Fail to support provisions that allow for shorter embargo periods to publicly funded research results. This provision ignores the potential harm to stakeholders that can accrue through unnecessarily long delays.
- Fail to ensure that federal agencies have full text copies of their funded research articles to archive and provide to the public for full use, and for long-term archiving. By condoning a link to an article on a publisher's website as an acceptable compliance mechanism, this provision puts the long term accessibility and utility of federally funded research articles at serious risk.
- Stifle researchers' ability to share their own research and to access the works of others, slowing progress towards scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, treatments, and cures.
- Make it harder for U.S. companies — especially small businesses and start-ups — to access cutting-edge research, thereby slowing their ability to innovate, create new products and services, and generate new jobs.
- Waste further time and taxpayer dollars by calling for a needless, additional 18-month delay while agencies "develop plans for" policies. This is a duplication of federal agency work that was required by the White House Directive and has, in large part, already been completed.
- Impose unnecessary costs on federal agency public access programs by conflating access and preservation policies as applied to articles and data. The legislation does not make clear enough what data must be made accessible, nor adequately articulate the location of where such data would reside, or its terms of use.
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