Spring is coming, and it is going to be an exciting one.
Last year, the scholarly publishing world witnessed the “Academic Spring,” during which scientists boycotted?traditional subscription-based publishers (specifically, Elsevier) and encouraged their colleagues to make their research freely available by publishing in open access journals. Calling attention to a range of issues related to information access, the protest pushed forward the debate on who should govern access to research, and who should pay for it.
Now, as spring rolls around again, the debate is picking up more steam. It might have begun with the suicide of computer programmer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz in January, as Swartz was facing decades of prison time as part of a federal investigation involving alleged downloads of thousands of JSTOR articles. On February 14 (on the eleventh anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative?), Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA), Kevin Yoder (R-KS), and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), which mandates that federally-funded research be made available to the public no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Shortly after FASTR was introduced, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a directive?calling for federal agencies to develop the infrastructure for providing public access to federally funded research within the next six months. Broadening the scope of FASTR?s mandate, the White House directive would affect approximately nineteen federal agencies (those which spend more than $100 million a year on extramural research and development funding) and require public access to federally funded research within one year of publication.
As a new student in library and information science (and–full disclosure–as an employee of the open-access publisher and advocacy organization PLOS), I have been watching these developments with enthusiasm, curiosity, and also a little trepidation.
In the first place, it is exciting to see the open access movement gaining momentum. I am proud to be in the middle of this movement and witness these historic changes as I deepen my own professional and academic work.
Second, I am curious what this legislation might mean for students like me who are heading into (if not already into) careers in information management. The current and future shifts in publishing methods, copyright issues, and digital storage and preservation (among other changes) will likely impact not only what and how we study, but also what knowledge will be needed for our jobs.
I am also anxious to see what comes next in this optimistic yet uncertain spring. Will the massive federal spending cuts that went into effect on March 1 impact the ability of funders to support open access publishing, and the ability of authors to deposit their work in open repositories? What kinds of developments in technology and preservation are needed to support the growth of open repositories, and how will responsibility fall upon archivists to steward this research? How will publishers, librarians, and archivists negotiate issues of access, copyright, and privacy as lines become increasingly blurred? When the open access movement spreads beyond scientific disciplines (which is already beginning to happen) and goes beyond the journal format, what new considerations will need to be taken into account?
These are just some of the questions I have been thinking about; fortunately, there are others far more equipped than I am to answer them. As a start, I will be building up my knowledge base by reading background information and analysis on FASTR, the White House directive, and other issues. Among others, I recommend the following helpful sources:
- FAQ on FASTR from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition:? http://www.arl.org/sparc/resources/sparc-faq-for-the-fair-access-to-science-and-techn.shtml
- FASTR reference sheet from Peter Suber of the Harvard Open Access Project: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap/Notes_on_the_Fair_Access_to_Science_and_Technology_Research_Act
- Explanation from Suber about the relationship between FASTR and the White House directive: https://plus.google.com/109377556796183035206/posts/8hzviMJeVHJ
It is an interesting and important time to be in library school, especially this spring. I consider learning about these recent developments and what they mean for librarianship and archives management to be as crucial to my education as my regular coursework. While they have been years in the making, and while there are clearly more challenges and triumphs ahead, the shifts that have taken place this spring will leave a lasting mark.