White House open access petition reaches 25,000

Early this morning, the White House petition for open Internet access to taxpayer-funded research reached 25,000 signatures, which means the petition will now be placed on the desk of the President’s Chief of Staff and must be integrated into policy and political discussions. This is a significant moment in what has been a growing movement over the past several years to provide access to academic research papers to the patients, students, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and other taxpayers who pay for the research.

Using taxpayer money, the U.S. Government funds most of the research conducted in the U.S. One of the only ways to access the papers published from this research is through academic journals—a $12 billion a year industry. Supporters of the open access petition believe that the taxpayers who fund this research should have free access to it, further fostering research and education.

Richard Price, CEO of True portfolio company academia.edu, a platform for academics to share research papers, believes this to be a significant moment in the future of academia, technology and innovation.

“Policymakers need a public mandate in order to drive change, and 25,000 signatures in two weeks provides that mandate. This, combined with the public access policies adopted by the NIH and a number of premiere research universities, demonstrate the commitment academics, research institutions and the general public have to open access. Anyone who is reflecting seriously on the future of technology realizes the benefit of removing barriers to scientific research. Soon there will be no paywalls at all.”

For more on the open access movement, click here.