[ed. note: this post has been changed after initial publication to prevent confusion]
Congratulations, America, your country is one presidential veto away from requiring open access to tax-funded research.
For further information:
I do wonder, though, if arguments framing this as a taxation issue are really what the open access movement needs. It might be the reason that I have heard some scientists pushing open access as just ‘American research for Americans’ – and expressing protectionist resentments about U.S. research falling into the hands of people who didn’t pay for it.
Surely we don’t want jingoism to feed an unhealthy and small-minded attitude that open access should stop at national borders – especially when open access has such potential for international development.
I don’t see a whiff of “American research for Americans” in the ATA press release.
Certainly not, and I didn’t mean to give that impression. Such a message is nowhere to be found on the ATA website, which presents the cogent principle:
“American taxpayers are entitled to open access on the Internet to the peer-reviewed scientific articles on research funded by the U.S. Government.”
This is absolutely correct.
I suspect my use of inline quotations marks in contributed to the confusion – this post will get an edit to clarify my position. Thanks for alerting me to this.
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