Open-access debate continues with new bill in US Congress

Science : Whether scientific papers funded with taxpayer money should be made available online for free has been the subject of an ongoing debate among members of Congress, universities, and publishers. Last week lawmakers reintroduced a proposal to make such papers free on the internet. The Federal Research Public Access Act would expand a National Institutes of Health policy that requires investigators it funds to submit copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts for posting in a public database, writes Jocelyn Kaiser for Science. Last December an opposing piece of legislation, the Research Works Act , proposed to prohibit open-access mandates and reverse NIH’s Public Access Policy. The support for the Research Works Act by one of the world’s largest scientific journal publishers, Elsevier, prompted a boycott by scientists earlier this month. No committees have yet planned hearings on the new bill.