POLITICO: … In response to a petition on the White House web site, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said he issued the order Friday.
“[T]he Obama Administration is committed to ensuring that the results of federally-funded scientific research are made available to and useful for the public, industry, and the scientific community,” wrote John Holdren, who is also assistant to the president for science and technology. “Moreover, this research was funded by taxpayer dollars. Americans should have easy access to the results of research they help support.”
The petition, created by J.W. of Oakland, Calif. in May 2012, drew more than 65,000 signatures and asked that all federally funded research be posted on the Internet. The petition noted that the National Insitutes of Health already has a public-access policy that has not hindered the research process… (more)
Let’s hope this doesn’t get watered down. If the government pays for any part of it, the whole of it is provided to the public free of charge. We shouldn’t have to pay to learn what it is we already paid for.