Petition for Public Access to Research

It's time to let policymakers in the United States know that you support open access. Following a very successful petition drive in the EC to support an open access mandate, a broad coalition of libraries, health groups, students, and consumers is jointly supporting a Petition for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research in the United States.

This petition, which is open to supporters around the world, will demonstrate clearly to U.S. policymakers the depth and breadth of support for access to federally funded research in the United States. Even if you signed the European petition, it’s important that you sign the US petition as well. Here’s why:

• The European Commission petition was designed to support specifically Recommendation A1 of the EC’s Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets of Europe.
• The U.S. petition is written to support public access to research funded by the U.S. government as well as the reintroduction and passage of the Federal Research Public Access Act.
• The U.S. petition collects state-specific information, which is essential to making the case for public access to individual lawmakers.

The Petition for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research in the United States (http://www.publicaccesstoresearch.org) is open to individuals and organizations of all types.

If you are a researcher whose work is funded by the federal government, your signature is especially important since it shows that you want your work to be shared and used.

Please distribute this message and invite your members, friends, and colleagues to sign the petition as soon as possible in order that as much progress as possible may be made in the 110th Congress.