Federal Research Public Access Act proposed

[Chip]

One thing the Svensmark topic has shown that is unrelated to the issues involved is the high value of access to astronomical papers in astronomical journals. This applies to everyone, whatever viewpoint, and has come up in a response on one of the threads. This bill looks like a step in the right direction and we should give it our support and hope it leads to more recent, relevant, and detailed information becoming available to amateur astronomy.

The background material often found in the standard "Introduction" of journal articles is an invaluable source of information on most astronomical objects that are observable (but don't get covered in books and magazines except occasionally). I and others routinely look to journal articles on galaxies for this background though the specific research project is not that immediately interesting.

For example, coincidentally, my next web-thing this afternoon is to try to come up with something in this way on NGC-3367; and can you guess from that I got a few observing type image-subs of that last night? This bill could be a big benefit to all of us observing.

[Edit: Here's an example, both Introduction and Conclusion, that gives enough information in a readable way to explain the basics of this particular galaxy. Coincidentally it's UofMN Astro work by Larry Rudnick et al who with others has helped MAS a lot over the years.
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/ ... 5107v1.pdf
Thanks, Dr Rudnick!]

"The proposed bill would build on the success of the first U.S. mandate for public access to the published results of publicly funded research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and require federal agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from funded research no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

"“Free and open access to scientific literature and data are the underpinnings of discovery in the digital age,”....."

A link to the full release, bill web-post, and some comments both pro and con....
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/15/a ... more-18530


---Tom Lindquist

[Dale Smith]

This is something that sounds good at first glance, but opens up a whole can of worms that may not be so wonderful in the long run. The researchers, having accepted federal funds, are not in a good position to complain about public access. However, what about the publishers whose journals carry the articles? They usually do not get any of that public money. They put in editorial time, arrange for the peer review and and provide the printing resources to publish a product. Their reimbursement comes from sale of those journals. Usually they are protected by copyright from unauthorized piracy of the articles. Now the government comes along and says that the article in manuscript form must be made available for free within a relatively short time after publication. This is almost certain to bite into the sales of those journals. In the long run this may result in fewer peer reviewed articles because the publishers no longer find it profitable to remain in business. There are also copyright issues to be hammered out.

[Chip]

Good points, and I share in general as to being realistically skeptical about things that might wrongly upset apple-carts. I don't think copyrights would be involved, owership of the work and rights wouldn't seem changed. This is more like letting people read in the library.

Surely the Journals have expenses and are under financial pressure, but the 6 month delay and the hard copy factor would seem to keep libraries and academia and professionals subscribing, so the financial effect would seem limited. The main beneficiaries would seem to be students and the general taxpaying public that funds the work. There may be a problem to work out in the arcane arena of scientific academia in the area of "publish or perish" scorekeeping with journal article lists in C.V.'s; but, they're smart and would be expected to work that out. probably. Many researchers post pre-prints on the web and issue press releases and have for years. They want to get their results out. In the digital age the journal industry is already evolving.

Also, though apparently unrelated, of concern is the future of NASA which has been of huge importance to am-astro growth in general and MAS growth here. NASA has been a huge contributor to public domain and I wonder if bad effects might come out of NASA's current downsizing (if it is?). The Armstrong astronaut group letter was a shock.

---Tom Lindquist

[Corinthian]

Hey that's all fine you just keep your hands off my "shrink" theory I'mma get a Nobel Prize for it...

Of course they practically hand those out in Cracker Jack boxes now days but still!

KIDDING!!!

Honeslty, I cannot wait until I get over to the U of M I'm soo tempted to change my Major to Astro Physics. I'll see though this is only my first semester and I'm finding it hard to work/school/hobby !!

[johnkra]

Especially the one for peace.
John