8.3: Federal Research Public Access Act

[Enact] the Federal Research Public Access Act.

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Commercialization and dissemination of publicly funded research are two domains where fostering innovation in the interest of the two government objectives -- promoting economic activity and advancing the public interest -- may conflict. The protection of intellectual property (patents and copyrights) introduces the profit incentive to inventive activity, but this is a rather ineffective incentive if the innovator does not or cannot pursue profit. That is precisely the case of public R&D because the general expectation is that new knowledge created with taxpayers' money may be made available to taxpayers at minimum cost. If new knowledge is inexpensively disseminated, profit-seeking enterprises will not seek its commercialization. The expectation of a wide dissemination of public research has inspired a bill that is currently being considered in Congress. We should support the Federal Research Public Access Act (HR4004, S2096) that mandates public dissemination of federally funded research within six months of publication (for agencies with extramural funding exceeding $100 million). The bill proposes an exclusion of classified research, books from which authors receive a royalty, and patentable discoveries. If some accommodation can be made to compensate for revenue lost by for-profit publishers of academic journals, we believe that this bill is consistent with the goal of pursuing widespread dissemination of the knowledge funded with public monies.

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