The Research Works Act has been officially dropped, reports ScienceInsider's Jocelyn Kaiser. The proposed bill, which would have banned NIH from requiring that its researchers allow the public to access their work, engendered much outrage from the research community, and caused thousands of researchers to start a boycott of publisher Elsevier for its support of the Act, Kaiser says. A recent report suggested that the bill wouldn't move forward in Congress this year, shortly before Elsevier announced it was dropping its support of the bill. RWA's sponsors, representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), released a statement saying the act had outlived its usefulness, Kaiser adds.
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