Delivering timely, open, online access to the results of federally funded research in the United States will significantly increase the return on the public’s investment in science, according to a new study by John Houghton at the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University. The study, “The Economic and Social Returns on Investment in Open Archiving Publicly Funded Research Outputs,” co-authored by Bruce Rasmussen and Peter Sheehan, was released today by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).
Public funding of scientific, technical, and medical research assumes that economic and social returns to taxpayers will exceed the amount of the research investment. A proposal currently before the U.S. Congress – the Federal Research Public Access Act, H.R. 5037 and S. 1373 (FRPAA) – seeks to ensure and maximize the public’s return by delivering open online access to the results of research funded through 11 federal agencies no later than six months after publication in a journal. The Victoria University study outlines one approach to measuring the potential impact of this policy on returns on public investment in research and development (R&D).
The new study examines the effect of key variables that influence the potential return on investment from this research. These variables concern both access to research – including content embargoes – and the efficiency with which research is applied in practice. The study also defines the additional data and model developments necessary for an accurate estimate of the policy’s likely impact.
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