A revived Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA). Like the earlier version in 2009, the bill would require peer-reviewed articles resulting from federal research dollars to be made available free online within six months of their publication.
The mandate would apply to research from all federal agencies with extramural research budgets over $100 million. Agencies that fall into this category include the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and others.
The National Institutes of Health has had a similar policy for the last two years that requires deposit of final manuscripts into PubMed Central within one year of publication.
For more information and updates on FRPAA, visit the Alliance for Taxpayer Access. The full text of the bill, along with a summary of actions and status, can be viewed through the THOMAS legislative information system.