Push for open access to research
March 2, 2007 | Source: BBC News
Five leading European research institutions have launched a petition that calls on the European Commission to establish a new policy that would require all government-funded research to be made available to the public shortly after publication, via the Internet.
University researchers typically have published their findings in expensive, peer-reviewed publications, which were purchased by those same publicly-funded universities.
The model certainly proved lucrative for large publishers, yet resulted in the public paying twice for research that it was frequently unable to access.