White House to make new research publically available

(CBS News) The Obama administration made a move that has many in Washington and around the world excited; they released a mandate that requires all government funded research to be made free and available for everyone.

In a memo from February 22, John Holdren, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) explained in detail the policy, as well as gave publications a better understanding on how to release their information.

The policy will only impact all agencies that spend more than $100 million in research and development. Some agencies that are affected are the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Fuondation (NSF).

These organizations were given a 12 month window to make information available to the general public at no cost, which eliminates the expensive barrier to the information. This time dispensation also allows publishers to collect sufficient revenue from subscriptions within the first year the research is available.

Each agency is being asked to present a draft of how they will implement the new procedure within their offices, that will then be reviewed and approved by the OSTP. The NIH is the only agency that already implements a similar system, called PubMed Central.

Holdren also mentioned the policy in a response to a "We the People" petition from the administration's website. The petition gathered more than 65,000 signatures in support of making federally funded research public.

Many organizations including the American Astronomical Society support the administrations decision to make this information public. "If the public is truly to benefit from the research they're paying for," said Chris Biemesderfer, Director of Publishing at the AAS. "They must have access to articles that have been fully subjected to all the quality assurances that guarantee good scholarship."