ATA is an
alliance of organizations representing taxpayers, patients,
physicians, researchers, and institutions that support open
public access to taxpayer-funded research. It is guided by the
following
principles:
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1. |
American taxpayers
are entitled to open access to the peer reviewed
scientific articles on research funded by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). |
|
2. |
Open access to these
reports will lead to usage by millions of physicians,
public health professionals, patients, students,
teachers, scientists, and others, and will deliver an
accelerated return on the taxpayers' investment in
NIH. |
|
3. |
Widespread
dissemination of these reports is an essential,
inseparable component of our nation's investment in
science.
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The Association
of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) joined three dozen
national organizations in launching the Alliance. "ASERL is
proud to be part of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access," stated
ASERL Board President, Barbara Dewey of the University of
Tennessee. "American taxpayers have supported NIH-funded
research for decades but economic constraints are increasingly
impeding access to the results of that research. Today, we are
asking for the results of these investments to be made freely
available to taxpayers through an open access archive. Our
faculty, students, and the general public would all benefit
from this
access."
"The proposal
presented for consideration by NIH and on Capitol Hill does
not change the traditional peer review and scholarly
publishing process," added John Burger, ASERL Executive
Director. "It simply ensures free public access to the
archives of previously reported information that was funded by
the American public. It's clearly the right thing to
do."
Founded in
1956, ASERL is the largest regional academic library
cooperative in the country, with 37 research libraries and six
state libraries. ASERL played a key role in founding the
Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) and established
SOLINET's cooperative database licensing program that today is
one of the largest of its kind in the country. For information
about ASERL's programs, visit here.
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Meanwhile, the
position of publishers to the proposal to make NIH funded
research papers freely available, couldn't be clearer. In an
open letter to Elias Zerhouni, MD, Director of the National
Institutes of Health, several publishers wrote, 'We write this
open letter to you jointly on behalf of publishers and
professional societies within several organizations.' It
continued, '1. We object to the notion that government
intervention in scientific publishing is warranted, and
believe that any policy that would mandate the deposition of
scientific publications into a central, government-operated
repository to be an inappropriate intrusion on the legitimate
business interests of the private sector. 2. No open,
independent process of analysis has been undertaken to support
the basis for the NIH's proposed policy actions at this
juncture. Social arguments about hypothetical denial of access
are rampant, but a dispassionate analysis of access denial and
the consequences thereof have not been conducted, no doubt
because there are no or very few real examples. Moreover,
economic arguments that focus on historical list prices for
print subscriptions to journals, rather than the negotiated
cost of access by consortia, do not reflect the reality of the
last five years.'
The letter
voiced the objections of some of America's most eminent
publishers who clearly worry that the their business model and
the intellectual content of their journals and publications
are threatened by the NIH proposal. They also deplore the lack
of public debate about the proposal which strikes at the very
heart of STM publishing.
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