Require Publication of Research by Public Grant Receivers

An article by Britt Erickson in the November 28 issue of C&E News is entitled "Open Access Movement Grows". It concerns the availability of scholarly articles on the sciences and humanities to the general public.

The previous argument was whether university scientists should be required to publish their research in publicly available journals. Many scientists believed this should not be a requirement, in spite of the fact that they had received taxpayer funds in the form of government grants to support their research. My previous opinion was that publication should be a requirement, because in the acceptance of public funds, the grant receiver gives up his right to privacy. I maintain that position.

However, the argument has changed. Nine years ago a group of advocates, for publication and availability to the general public of such scholarly articles, held an open meeting called Berlin 9 Open Access Conference. With each subsequent annual meeting, support has grown to open publication. The theory has been that with the increase of such research publishing, science and humanity development will be enhanced. After nine years, this seems to be correct. There have been many more published articles and even the introduction of public access journals.

This indirectly supports my contention that those persons who receive government money have an obligation to return something of value to those supplying the funds; namely taxpayers.