Long-standing members of the American Scientist Open Access Forum will
recognize some exceedingly familiar themes voiced (at long last) in the
following excerpts from the very welcome and helpful 2006 Open Letter by
25 US University Provosts in support of the Federal Research Public
Access Act (FRPAA). But having now expressed their support for the
federal self-archiving mandate, there is absolutely no need for the
provosts to wait for the Act's adoption to act! This would be an
excellent time for each to put their support into practice by adopting
an institutional self-archiving mandate of their own, at their own
institution (and registering it in ROARMAP for other institutions to
emulate).
http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php
http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/groups/CICMembers/archive/documents/FRPAAletterFinal7-24-06.pdf
http://cornyn.senate.gov/doc_archive/05-02-2006_COE06461_xml.pdf
> An Open Letter to the Higher Education Community:
>
> We believe that [FRPAA] represents a watershed and provides an
> opportunity for the entire U.S. higher education and research
> community to draw upon their traditional partnerships and
> collaboratively realize the unquestionably good intentions of the
> Bill's framers - broadening access to publicly funded research
> in order to accelerate the advancement of knowledge and maximize
> the related public good...
>
> ...we agree with [FRPAA's] basic premise that enabling the broadest
> possible access to new ideas resulting from government-funded research
> promotes progress, economic growth, and public welfare. Furthermore,
> we know that, when combined with public policy such as FRPAA proposes,
> the Internet and digital technology are powerful tools for removing
> access barriers and enabling new and creative uses of the results
> of research....
>
> Collectively, our universities engage in billions of dollars of funded
> research. On average, approximately 50% of our research funding
> originates with the federal government. That public investment -
> estimated at over $55 billion for the research covered by FRPAA -
> is complemented by our own institutional investments in research
> units, laboratories, libraries, and the faculty and staff whose
> expertise permeates them. FRPAA has the potential to enable the
> maximum downstream use of those investments...
>
> Each month the evidence mounts that open access to research through
> digital distribution increases the use of that research and the
> visibility of its creators. Widespread public dissemination levels
> the economic playing field for researchers outside of well-funded
> universities and research centers and creates more opportunities
> for innovation....
>
> FRPAA is good for education and good for research. It is good for
> the American public, and it promotes broad, democratic access to
> knowledge...
>
> Susan D. Allen, Vice Chancellor for Research and Academic Affairs,
> Arkansas State University
>
> John L. Anderson, Provost and University Vice President, Case Western
> Reserve University
>
> Lawrence B. Dumas, Provost, Northwestern University Rodney
> A. Erickson, Executive Vice President & Provost, Pennsylvania State
> University
>
> Patrick Farrell, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs,
> University of Wisconsin-Madison
>
> Philip Furmanski, Executive VP for Academic Affairs, Rutgers, The
> State University of New Jersey
>
> Michael J. Hogan, Executive Vice President and Provost, University
> of Iowa
>
> Wyatt R Hume, Executive Vice President & Provost, University of
> California
>
> Steven E. Hyman, Provost, Harvard University
>
> Mark S. Kamlet, Provost & Senior Vice President, Carnegie Mellon
> University
>
> Linda Katehi, Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs,
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>
> Edward S. Macias, Executive Vice Chancellor, Washington University -
> St. Louis
>
> Mark G. McNamee, University Provost and Vice President for Academic
> Affairs, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
>
> Sally Mason, Provost, Purdue University
>
> Michael McRobbie, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic
> Affairs, Bloomington, Indiana University
>
> Charles E. Phelps, Provost, University of Rochester
>
> David B. Prior, Executive Vice President and Provost, Texas A&M
> University
>
> Barry P. Scherr, Provost, Dartmouth College
>
> Barbara R. Snyder, Executive Vice President & Provost, The Ohio
> State University
>
> Eric F. Spina, Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost, Syracuse
> University
>
> E. Thomas Sullivan, Executive Vice President & Provost, University
> of Minnesota
>
> Teresa A. Sullivan, Provost & Executive Vice President, University
> of Michigan
>
> R. Michael Tanner, Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs,
> University of Illinois at Chicago
>
> Kim Wilcox, Provost, Michigan State University
>
> Nicholas S. Zeppos, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs,
> Vanderbilt University
Some Pertinent Prior AmSci Topic Threads:
"Written evidence for UK Select Committee's Inquiry into Scientific
Publications" (Dec 2003)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/subject.html#3264
"What Provosts Need to Mandate" (Dec 2003)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/subject.html#3241
"A Simple Way to Optimize the NIH Public Access Policy" (Oct 2004)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4092.html
"Please Don't Copy-Cat Clone NIH-12 Non-OA Policy!" (Jan 2005)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4308.html
"Maximising the Return on UK's Public Investment in Research"
(Sep 2005)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/subject.html#4755
"Generic Rationale and Model for University Open Access
Self-Archiving Mandate" (Mar 2006)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/subject.html#5216
"How to Counter All Opposition to the
FRPAA Self-Archiving Mandate" (Sep 2006)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/subject.html#5399
Stevan Harnad
Received on Fri Jul 28 2006 - 21:33:08 BST