Open Access Goes to Washington

Publishers and open-access advocates are duking it out in front of a US House of Representatives committee, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education's Jennifer Howard. The fight is over whether research paid for with federal money should be made publically accessible. Advocates say yes, but publishers are urging lawmakers not to make a hasty decision, "for fear of putting US intellectual property — and publishers' livelihoods — at risk," Howard says. The measures advocates are fighting for include initiatives like NIH's policy requiring results of federally-funded research be made openly available within 12 months of publication, she adds.