Category Archives: Take Action/Action Center

Thank FRPAA’s introducing co-sponsors

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Please take a few moments to thank FRPAA’s introducing co-sponsors for their leadership on public access, even if you don’t live in their district.  A strong showing of support from our community will help embolden our champions to lobby their colleagues in Congress aggressively for FRPAA’s passage.  Contact information for each of our introducing sponsors is below.

You can thank the sponsors in a number of ways.  First and foremost, you can use our template thank you letter to create your own which you can submit to the offices either through their webforms (you can use the address of their district office as a stand-in if you don’t live in their district) or by faxing it.  You can also post a short thank you to their Facebook page or on Twitter.  Finally, you can call the sponsors’ offices to let them know you appreciate their support for public access.

Senate

House

Draft Letter Text – Oppose H.R. 3699

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[PLEASE ADAPT]

Subject: I oppose H.R. 3699

Dear Representative,

On behalf of [your organization], I am writing to strongly oppose H.R. 3699, the “Research Works Act,” introduced on December 16, and referred to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This bill would prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grant funding to require that all members of the public be guaranteed online access to the products of the research that their tax dollars fund.  This bill will deny students guaranteed access to cutting-edge research upon which their education depends, and significantly inhibit our ability to advance scientific discovery and stimulate innovation in all scientific disciplines.

Most critically, H.R. 3699 would reverse the highly successful National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy, prohibit American taxpayers from accessing the results of the crucial biomedical research funded by their taxpayer dollars, and stifle critical advancements in life-saving research and scientific discovery.

Because of the NIH Public Access Policy, millions of Americans now have access to vital health care information from the NIH’s PubMed Central database. Under the current policy, more than 90,000 new biomedical manuscripts are deposited for public accessibility each year. H.R. 3699 would prohibit the deposit of these manuscripts, seriously impeding the ability of researchers, physicians, healthcare professionals, families, and students to access and use this critical health-related information in a timely manner.

H.R. 3699 affects not only the results of biomedical research produced by the NIH, but also scientific research coming from all other federal agencies.  Access to critical information on energy, the environment, climate change, and hundreds of other areas that directly impact the lives and well being of the public would be unfairly limited by this proposed legislation.

Research articles, a significant portion of which are government-funded, are the building blocks of a student’s education – from the core to the cutting edge. Students – and the professors who teach them – must have access to the most current research to receive a complete, up-to-date education. Rather than impede access to these resources, as the Research Works Act does, the government should actively ensure students get the full benefit of our collective investment in science.  After all, our future economic competitiveness will rely on workers with an advanced education in fields like biotechnology and clean energy that depends on unfettered access to the research literature.

[Why you support taxpayer access and how it effects you personally].

The NIH and other agencies must be allowed to ensure timely, public access to the results of research funded with taxpayer dollars. Please oppose H.R. 3699.

Sincerely,

[your name]

Student talking points and contact information for letters to NIH Director Collins

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The following talking points are for use in conjunction with the call to action issued March 30, 2011. As always, please adapt and expand as needed to suit your unique voice.

  • [Describe your organization]

  • Offer congratulations as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) marks the third anniversary of its highly successful Public Access Policy. 

  • Note that the NIH and Director Collins have shown tremendous leadership in implementing the first U.S. policy to ensure that all students and other members of the public – including patients and their families, health care professionals, researchers, entrepreneurs and business owners – are guaranteed free online access to articles reporting on the results of research that their tax dollars support.

  • As result of the NIH’s commitment to public access, every student can now take advantage of an invaluable new resource in the more than two million full-text articles in PubMed Central (PMC).  

  • [Describe you and/or your organization’s interests and use of PMC and why this is important for you]

  • Due to the high and increasing cost of many journals, students are often forced to make do with the fraction of journals their institution can afford rather than what they need. Furthermore, educators cannot teach what they cannot read, meaning inaccessible articles don’t find their way into the classes in which they should be taught.

  • The NIH public access policy allows all students and educators access to the results of NIH-funded research that are crucial for a complete, up-to-date education in biomedical fields, regardless of their institution’s ability to pay for journal subscriptions.

  • We ask that you consider shortening the embargo period for accessing articles reporting on NIH-funded research to six months or less.  

  • A six-month embargo will significantly enhance students’ ability to get the most up-to-date education.  With the fast pace of biomedical research, a shorter embargo period means students can hit the ground running after graduation rather than relying on potentially outdated information.

  • [Add your own conclusion]

  • [Thanks and offer of follow up]   

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dr. Francis Collins
Director, National Institutes of Health

1 Center Drive, MSC 0148 (Room 126)
Bethesda, MD 20892-0148 
Fax: 301-402-2700
Email: francis.collins@nih.gov

Student talking points and contact information for letters to OSTP Director Holdren

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The following talking points are for use in conjunction with the call to action issued March 30, 2011. As always, please adapt and expand as needed to suit your unique voice.

  • April 7th, 2011 will mark the third anniversary of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) highly successful Public Access Policy. 

  • It’s the first U.S. policy to ensure that members of the public – including students [and other groups you believe benefit from access] – have guaranteed, free, online access to articles reporting on the results of research that their tax dollars support.

  • PMC has made available more than two million full-text articles, which are accessed by nearly half a million users every day from all sectors of the public.

  • On behalf of [describe your organization], we ask that you consider immediately expanding the NIH Public Access Policy to all other departments and agencies with extramural research budgets of $100 million or more.

  • Doing so will greatly benefit American students of all disciplines who rely on access to government-funded research for a complete and up-to-date education.

  • [Explain why public access is important to your organization and how you have benefited from the success of the NIH policy]

  • Because of the high price of many subscriptions, students are often forced to make do with only the journals their institution can afford rather than what they need.  Furthermore, educators cannot teach what they cannot read, meaning inaccessible articles don’t find their way into the classes in which they should be taught.

  • In this time of across the board belt-tightening, we’re asking our educational institutions to do more with less, and expanding the NIH policy to other federal science agencies is crucial to ensure the results of research are available to benefit all students, not just those at the wealthiest institutions.

  • As the United States continues its shift toward a knowledge-based economy, making publicly funded research available to all students is a direct investment in America’s future.  Expanding students’ access to cutting-edge research will help them to enter the workforce running, rather than having to play catch-up in learning the current state of their field.

  • [Thanks and invitation to discuss further]

CONTACT INFORMATION:

John Holdren
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President

New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20502
Fax: (202) 456-6021
Email: jholdren@ostp.eop.gov

cc:  
Tom Kalil
Deputy Director for Policy, Office of the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
Fax: (202) 456-6021
Email: tkalil@ostp.eop.gov

Carl Wieman
Associate Director of Science, Science Division, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
Fax: (202) 456-6027
Email: cwieman@ostp.eop.gov

Aneesh Chopra
Associate Director and Chief Technology Officer, Technology Division, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
Fax: (202) 456-6021
Email: achopra@ostp.eop.gov