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General Assembly 2013

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:08:01 UT

Register | Details | Schedule & Agenda | Logistics

Register

Registration for the General Assembly is now open! Registration is required to attend the GA, and you can register by visiting our registration page.

Want to get more involved? We will also be organizing a leadership retreat and advocacy training session immediately following the GA on the afternoon of August 4th and the morning of August 5th. This additional day will focus on implementing action items coming out of the GA and building advocacy skills with expert trainers. If you're interested in attending this additional day, please register here.

Details

The Right to Research Coalition will host its second General Assembly this summer from August 2nd through 4th in Budapest at the European Youth Centre. The meeting will convene leaders of student organizations from around the world to chart the future of student efforts promoting Open Access.

Date and location: August 2nd through the 4th at the European Youth Center in Budapest, Hungary. Participants are encouraged to arrive at the venue by 1:00pm on the 2nd as the meeting will begin in the early afternoon of that day. Likewise, participants should try to depart Budapest in the late afternoon of the 4th (after 3:00pm) as there will be morning sessions on the last day.

Who should attend? All Right to Research Coalition members are encouraged to send one to two delegates to the General Assembly; however, a number of additional slots will likely be available for organizations interested in sending more delegates. Please contact nick [at] arl [dot] org if your organization is interested in sending more delegates and hasn't already made arrangements to do so.

Cost: The suggested participation fee is $145 (approximately €110) and will cover full room and board. If your organization cannot cover the fee on your behalf, there is an option to waive the fee at registration. We don't expect individual participants to cover this fee out of pocket.

Funding assistance: Attendees are asked to cover as much of their own expenses as possible (including travel costs and the participation fee); however, we don't want cost to discourage members from attending the GA, so the Right to Research Coalition will have funding available as a supplement for those who require it. To request funding assistance, please get in contact with us by sending an email to nick [at] arl [dot] org.

Program and speakers: The program and speakers will be confirmed over the coming weeks. Sessions will cover topics such as national and international Open Access advocacy, campus advocacy, best practices on engagement and peer-to-peer education, working with professional societies, Open Access Week 2013, and more. After you've registered, you will receive an email once the program is announced.

Format: Our goal at the General Assembly is to foster discussion among the coalition members, share success stories and ideas, and build a vision for the future role of students in making Open Access a reality. As such, most of the sessions will be discussion-based with a panel seeding the conversation. Also, the meeting will be limited to a smaller number of participants to allow for more effective discussion, so expect to know everyone by the end of the GA!

Schedule & Agenda

The schedule and agenda for the General Assembly will be decided by a small programming committee of R2RC members. Once confirmed, the program for the GA will be posted here and emailed to all the participants. To propose workshops or topics to be covered, email nick [at] arl [dot] org.

Logistics

Venue: The meeting and accommodations will be at the European Youth Centre Budapest, located at 1024 Budapest, Zivatar utca 1-3. Hungary.

View The Right to Research Coalition General Assembly 2012 in a larger map

Travel to and from the European Youth Centre: you can find directions for how to get to and from the GA conference venue on the Europe Youth Centre's website here. You will have to arrange your own travel to and from the meeting; however, the EYC is centrally located and easily accessible by public transportation.

Emergency Contact: If you have any urgent problems, you can reach the coalition's director and meeting organizer at any time at +1 615 400 1449. For less urgent matters, he can be reached at nick [at] arl [dot] org.

White House issues landmark Directive making publicly funded research freely available to students, rest of public

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:44:40 UT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 22, 2013

Contact: Nick Shockey
202-296-2296
nick@arl.org

WHITE HOUSE ISSUES LANDMARK DIRECTIVE MAKING PUBLICLY FUNDED RESEARCH FREELY AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS, REST OF PUBLIC

Washington, D.C. – The Right to Research Coalition (R2RC) today applauds President Obama and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for issuing a landmark Directive to ensure the results of all publicly funded research are made freely available to the public to read and reuse.

“Generations of students will benefit from today’s Directive,” said Nick Shockey, Director of the Right to Research Coalition. “For too long, students have been locked out of large portions of the published research literature – research they and their families already paid for through tax dollars – due to outrageously high subscription prices. Research articles are essential to a complete, up-to-date education, and this Directive ensures far more students will have access to the cutting-edge training necessary to succeed in a modern economy.”

Every year, the federal government uses taxpayer dollars to fund tens of billions of dollars of scientific research that results in thousands upon thousands of articles published in scientific journals. The government funds this research with the understanding that it will advance science, spur the economy, accelerate innovation, and improve the lives of our citizens. Yet most taxpayers – including students, academics, and patients – are shut out of accessing and using the results of the research that their tax dollars fund, because it is only available through expensive and often hard-to-access scientific journals.

“Students aren’t just consumers of research. They’re powerful producers. One only need look to Jack Andraka, the 16-year-old Maryland high school student who invented a breakthrough diagnostic for pancreatic cancer based on articles he found freely available online, to see how the Directive will empower students to contribute even more to world-changing research,” said Shockey.

The White House Directive affirms the principle that the public has a right to access the results of taxpayer-funded research and calls on all federal agencies with annual research and development budgets of $100 million or more to provide free and timely online access to the results of that research. Articles reporting on the results of publicly funded scientific research must be made available no later than 12 months after publication in a scientific journal.

Additional details about the Directive can be found here.

To follow the conversation on Twitter use the hashtags #openaccess or #OA. Media questions can be directed to @R2RC or nick@arl.org.

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About the Right to Research Coalition

The Right to Research Coalition is an international alliance of 62 student organizations, which collectively represent nearly 7 million students around the world, that work to make the results of research openly available through education and advocacy. The Right to Research Coalition is an initiative of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

More information can be found at www.righttoresearch.org.

Call to Action: Support the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR)

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:19:54 UT

On February 14, 2013, Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Doyle (D-PA), Yoder (R-KS), and Lofgren (D-CA) introduced FASTR, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, a bill that will accelerate scientific discovery and fuel innovation by making articles reporting on publicly funded scientific research freely accessible online for anyone to read and build upon.

FASTR will improve the education of students at all levels of American higher education, from community colleges to graduate programs, by providing resources necessary for a complete, up-to-date understanding of their chosen field.

Even at the wealthiest institutions, students and the instructors who teach them are too often locked out of the scientific literature, because their institutions can’t afford access. Some journals cost more than $5,000 or even $25,000 to rent access for a single year, even though much of the research they contain is publicly funded.

FASTR breaks down these paywalls by requiring that all articles resulting from publicly funded research be made freely available to the public who paid for them within six months of publication. The US government’s annual investment of $60 billion represents a large portion of all research published in the US each year. FASTR will maximize the return on this investment by making articles reporting on cutting-edge research available for students – and anyone else – to read and build upon.

Last but not least, FASTR address reuse rights necessary to ensure that researchers have the ability to use powerful new computational text and data analysis tools that have the potential to revolutionize the research process.

Act Now | Background | Talking Points | Resources

Act now!

Let Congress know you support FASTR

Write your legislators, via the Right to Research Action Center
A letter of support is the best way to influence your legislators, and with our customizable templates, it only takes a few minutes!

[NOTE: the above link will take you to the Alliance for Taxpayer Access site, which hosts the Right to Research Coalition's legislative action center]
Thank FASTR's introducing co-sponsors on social media
Even if you're not in their districts, it's important to thank FASTR's introducing sponsors to let them know there is a large community of support behind the bill.
Visit your legislators' local offices
Taking the time for an in-person visit to the office of one of your legislators is an especially effective was to demonstrate your support, particularly if you can organize a group of students from your campus or your student organization to join you.

Raise awareness of and build support for FASTR

Tweet about FASTR using the hashtag #FASTR, and post a link to our call to action on Facebook!
Tell your friends and professors about FASTR, encourage them to contact their legislators as well.
Write a letter to the editor or op-ed for your campus or local newspaper, or blog about FASTR.
Add a "Support FASTR" banner to your or your organization's website. You can find the banner in a variety of formats here.

Background

Now before both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) would require those agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from such funding no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal and enable productive their reuse.

This bill would revolutionize students' access to the tools necessary for a complete, up-to-date education. Even at well funded universities, students - and those who teach them - often cannot get access to significant portions of the scholarly record due to prohibitive price barriers. The vast collection of articles FASTR would make freely available - representing a significant portion of all researched published in the United States - would provide students with an unprecedented educational resource and level the playing field for those at less wealthy institutions.

The bill specifically covers unclassified research funded by 11 agencies including: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

FASTR reflects the growing trend among funding agencies – and college and university campuses – to leverage their investment in the conduct of research by maximizing the dissemination and reuse of results. It follows the successful path forged by the NIH’s Public Access Policy, as well as by private funders like the Wellcome Trust and campuses such as Harvard, MIT, and the University of Kansas.

Talking Points

Thank the sponsors for introducing FASTR and ask your Representative and Senators to consider co-sponsoring FASTR.
The bipartisan bill, which was introduced in the Senate by Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Wyden (D-OR) and in the House by Representatives Doyle (D-PA), Yoder (R-KS), and Lofgren (D-CA) will accelerate scientific discovery and fuel innovation by making articles reporting on publicly funded scientific research freely accessible online for anyone to read and build upon.
Because of often-high subscription prices and shrinking library budgets, students routinely run into barriers accessing research articles - especially those at less wealthy institutions. The bill will significantly expand the access that students - and those who teach them - have to the up-to-date research that forms the building blocks of our education, from the core to the cutting edge.
By improving undergraduate and graduate education, FASTR will benefit students when it comes to putting their educations to use after graduation. Students will be better able to hit the ground running in their careers and contribute immediately in both the public and private sectors.
America's future economic competitiveness will rely on workers with an advanced education in fields like biotechnology and clean energy that depend on unfettered access to the research literature.
FASTR ensures these articles are available in formats and under terms that enable the use of new computational analysis tools that promise to revolutionize the research process.
Widespread access to the information contained in these manuscripts is an essential, inseparable component of our nation's investment in science. This and other scientific information should be shared in cost-effective ways that take advantage of the Internet, stimulate further discovery and innovation, and advance the translation of this knowledge into public benefits.
Open online access to research will ensure maximum discovery, use and re-use of available research – making possible an unprecedented variety of potential connections and discoveries, and improve the lives and welfare of people in the U.S. and around the world.
[Detail why public access to research is important to you or your organization.]

Resources

Open Access Explored! A conversation with Jorge Cham of PhD Comics, live from UC San Francisco

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 02:40:04 UT

2012 was a milestone year in the transition of Open Access into a mainstream issue, within both academia and the public at large. Conversations about the future of academic publishing filled pages from the Economist to the New York Times and even reached YouTube, where PhD Comics’ video, “Open Access Explained!” saw over 100,000 views in its first few weeks.

“Open Access Explained!” has been shared thousands of times and sparked countless conversations as an introduction to the issue; however, it is just a starting point.

Join us online or in person on Thursday, January 17th at 12:00pm PST (3:00pm EST) at the University of California, San Francisco’s Pottruck Auditorium for a conversation with Jorge Cham, the animator behind PhD Comics. Jorge, who started PhD Comics while completing his PhD at Stanford, will discuss his evolving view of Open Access, how it changed while making “Open Access Explained!”, and explore lingering questions with Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, and Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist at UC Davis and chair of the PLOS Biology Advisory Board.

Open Access Explored is presented by the Right to Research Coalition, and co-sponsored by SPARC, PLOS, and the University of California, San Francisco Library.

Registration for both the webcast and in-person event is free but required.

► Click here to register for the webcast of Open Access Explored! After registering, you will receive a confirmation email. Details on how to login to the webcast will be sent to you 3 days prior to the event.

► Click here to join us in person at UCSF's Pottruck Auditorium. Space is limited, so please be sure you can attend before registering. A light lunch will be served during the event. Pottruck Auditorium is located within Rock Hall on UCSF's Mission Bay campus at 1550 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94158.

About our speakers:

Jorge Cham is the animator behind PhD Comics. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and was a full-time Instructor and researcher at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 2003-2005. "Piled Higher and Deeper" the comic strip has appeared in The Stanford Daily, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Caltech newspapers among over 50 others. The strip has appeared or been featured in the journal Nature, Science Magazine the Chronicle of Higher Education, IEEE Potentials magazine, Math Horizons magazine, Stanford Magazine and Canada's The Peer Review magazine among others, and has been linked to by USA Today's, The NY Times and The Washington Post's websites.

Heather Joseph serves as the Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an international coalition of over 800 libraries working to enable a more open system of scholarly communication. As SPARC’s Director, she has focused on supporting the development of new publishing strategies and business models, and advocating for national and international policies that encourage the adoption of Open Access as a central principle of research and scholarship. Prior to joining SPARC, she spent 15 years as a publishing executive in both commercial and not-for-profit publishing organizations.

Jonathan A. Eisen was born in Brookline, MA and grew up in Bethesda, MD. He went to Harvard College where he majored in Biology and then attended graduate school at Stanford University and earned a PhD in Biological Sciences. He was on the faculty at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) for eight years before moving to the University of California, Davis. At UC Davis he is a Professor with appointments in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and the UC Davis Genome Center. He is the author of over 200 scientific publications, a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, is actively involved in the movement for increased openness in science, and serves as chair of the PLOS Biology Advisory Board.

NAGPS & Open Access

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:51:59 UT

R2RC Partners with PhD Comics for Open Access Week Video!

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:23:48 UT

To close Open Access Week 2012, we’re excited to announce our video collaboration with PhD Comics to produce “Open Access Explained!”. The comic-style animated video is a great resource to explain the basics of Open Access and why it’s important to friends, family, and colleagues. Take a look, and help us spread the word about Open Access throughout the research community and to the public at large!

European Commission Open Access Policy Officer to speak at R2RC European Open Access Week Webcast

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:39:54 UT

When: Wednesday, October 24th at 18:00 CET
Register: Registration is free but required. After registering, you will receive login instructions the day before the webcast. Register now by clicking here.

As the Times Higher Education reported earlier this year, “the European Union is set to throw the weight of its €80 billion research funding programme behind open-access publishing.” This research funding programme, Horizon 2020, is currently being considered by the European Commission, but the inclusion of a strong Open Access policy is far from certain. As a stakeholder community, students have an important role to play in ensuring the results of this publicly funded research are made openly available to all.

On Wednesday, October 24th at 18:00 CET, the Right to Research Coalition will host its European Open Access Week Webcast featuring Jean-François Dechamp and Alma Swan, two leading experts on European Open Access policy. Our speakers will address the current Open Access policy landscape within Europe, explain the deliberations within the European Commission to make all €80 billion of research funded in the Horizon 2020 framework openly available, and describe how students can advocate most effectively for strong Open Access policies.

About our speakers:

Jean-François Dechamp is a Policy Officer on Open Access within the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. He started his career in the Council of Europe, joined a pharmaceutical company in Italy, and then came to Brussels to work for several pharmaceutical associations in the field of European public affairs. In 2002, he joined the campaign for access to essential medicines of an international humanitarian non-governmental organisation, and later became the director of a patients' group in HIV/AIDS. Dr. Dechamp obtained his State Diploma of Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Strasbourg (France) in 1991.

Alma Swan is SPARC Europe’s Director of European Advocacy Programmes and a director of Key Perspectives Ltd, a market research and consulting firm specializing in scholarly communication. She is a Fellow of the Society of Biology and a Chartered Biologist, is an elected member of the Governing Board of Euroscience (the European Association for the Promotion of Science & Technology) and is the former editor of its online magazine, The Euroscientist. Dr. Swan holds honorary academic positions in the University of Southampton School of Electronics & Computer Science and the University of Warwick Business School.

Register for our webcast now by clicking here.

R2RC Open Access Week 2012 Planning Webcast

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:54:48 UT

When: Thursday, September 27th at 1:30pm EDT, 7:30pm CET
Registration is free, but required. After registering, you will receive login instructions the day before the event.

Click here to register.

Want to participate in Open Access Week but aren’t sure how to get started? Have some Open Access Week events planned but want to get ideas from what others are doing?

What is Open Access Week?

Join us Thursday, September 27th at 1:30pm EDT, 7:30pm CET for a one-hour Open Access Week planning webcast. We’ll have representatives from Right to Research Coalition members in Africa, Europe, and North America discuss their organizations’ plans for the week, and we’ll have a number of ideas for participating in Open Access Week that don’t require months of advanced planning.

Our featured webcast speakers will include:

Brandon Locke is the Vice Chair of Open Access for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Graduate Student Association and will lead their Open Access Week efforts for the second year in a row.

Mary Iwaret Otiti is the Medical Students’ Association of Kenya’s National Officer of Research Exchange and, in cooperation with EIFL, is planning Open Access Week events on the campus of the University of Nairobi.

Sofia Ribeiro is the European Medical Student Association’s Vice President for External Affairs and leads EMSA’s Open Access Week efforts, which will include overprice tags and the translation of R2RC resources into new languages.

With one month left, there’s still plenty of time to join students across the world in promoting Open Access on your campus during the week. Join us next week to ask questions, get ideas, and make plans to participate in the 6th annual Open Access Week. Students started Open Access Week in 2007, and with your help, we can make this year bigger than ever.

Find more information on Open Access Week at www.openaccessweek.org.

Click here to register.

[UPDATE]

Our speakers' slides can be found at the links below:

Brandon Locke on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's OA Week activities
Mary Iwaret Otiti on the Medical Students' Association of Kenya's OA Week activities
Sofia Riberio on the European Medical Student Association's OA Week activities
Nick Shockey on last minute ideas for participating in OA Week

Call to Action: Sign White House petition for free access to publicly funded research

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:21:25 UT

The Challenge | What You Can Do | Background

The Challenge

To get 25,000 signatures in under 30 days on a White House petition calling for President Obama to make taxpayer-funded research articles freely available.

If we can hit this target - or better yet, blow it out of the water - we can revolutionize students' access to information, increase access to affordable education, and accelerate the pace of science. Each year, we spend $60 billion in government research grants that fund the bulk of published research articles. Yet, even though we paid for the research, our institutions can't get access to the results without paying millions for often-expensive academic journals. Students are limited to what their institutions can afford (and even Harvard can't afford access to all its students need), and institutions with already-stretched budgets are forced to spend millions on subscriptions to rent access to a subset of journals.

With a simple directive, the President could provide students free access to these crucial resources that we paid for in the first place. The Administration has repeatedly shown interest in opening access to publicly funded research, and we strongly believe this petition will be a catalyst for the President to take decisive action.

As the recent negotiations on student loan debt have shown, President Obama cares what students have to say. Your voice matters. Sign the petition and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Together, we can send a signal that will make an education limited by paywalls a thing of the past.

What You Can Do

1. Sign the petition on the White House website.

2. Share with your friends, family, and colleagues. If we're going to blow past 25,000 signatures, we need your help. Share our call to action on facebook and twitter (#openaccess), write an op-ed for your campus newspaper, blog about it, email a link to your friends - whatever you can do to spread the word will make a difference.

3. Stay connected. Enter your email address below to receive infrequent updates from the Right to Research Coalition on future calls to action and other significant developments.

Background

Among students, finding what seems to be the perfect article only to realize you don't have access to the full-text is about as common an experience as there is. What you might not realize is that this problem is as unnecessary as it is common.

As taxpayers, we fund the bulk of published research through federal science agencies like the National Institutes of Health; however, even though we’ve paid for the research, we can’t read the resulting articles without paying often-expensive prices for the journals they’re published in. In 15 academic disciplines, the average journal costs more than $1,000 per year, and some journals can cost as much as $25,000 or more for a single subscription for one year. It’s common for the largest commercial publishers of academic journals to make profit margins in excess of 35% year in and year out, even though colleges and universities struggle to make ends meet without sacrificing college affordability.

Opening up access to these articles would give all students access to these resources crucial for a complete, up-to-date education - regardless of ability to pay for expensive journal subscriptions.

Through a Presidential directive, President Obama has the power to open all federally funded research immediately, and his administration has shown strong interest in doing so. Within the first year of his term, the White House issued a Request for Information about the merits of a policy requiring all federally funded research to be made available. Just this winter, the Obama Administration issued another Request for Information asking not if such a policy is a good idea, but rather how to implement it.

This interest means the petition isn't just a shot in the dark. We know the Administration is listening, and we know they are already considering taking action. A strong show of support can catalyze interest into action, turning requests for information into decisive policy.

More information and news can be found at the petition campaign website: www.access2research.org.

Today is the day!

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:23:48 UT

Today is the day, our Right to Research Coalition Day of Action in support of the Federal Research Public Access Act!

If you haven’t already, please take a few moments to draft an op-ed or letter to the editor explaining FRPAA and how it would benefit you and your campus community, then submit it to your local newspapers. These articles are very effective advocacy tools and demonstrate to your representatives and your local community the importance of this issue and this legislation. Furthermore, you will help raise awareness of the bill and inspire others to contact their representatives, providing a significant boost to FRPAA and its chances to become law.

You can find more details in our post announcing the day of action as well as talking points and tips for writing to your newspaper.

We’re excited to see pro-FRPAA articles appear in campus and local newspapers across the country over the next week, and don’t forget to send a link to nick [at] arl [dot] org when your story is run.

Thanks for your help in making the FRPAA Day of Action a success and bringing FRPAA one step closer to becoming law!

Save the Date: 2012 Right to Research Coalition General Assembly

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:50:08 UT

The Right to Research Coalition will host its first-ever General Assembly this summer from July 19th through the 21st in Budapest at the European Youth Centre. The meeting will convene leaders of student organizations from around the world to chart the future of student efforts promoting Open Access.

Date and location: July 19th through the 21st at the European Youth Center in Budapest, Hungary. Participants are encouraged to arrive by 1:00pm on the 19th as the meeting will begin in the early afternoon of that day. Likewise, participants should try to depart Budapest in the late afternoon of the 21st (after 3:00pm) as there will be morning sessions on the last day.

Who should attend? All Right to Research Coalition members are encouraged to send one delegate to the General Assembly; however, a number of additional slots will likely be available for organizations interested in sending more than one delegate.

Cost: The participation fee will be approximately €110 and will cover full room and board. Attendees are asked to cover as much of their own expenses as possible (including travel and the participation fee); however, the Right to Research Coalition will have funding available as a supplement for those who require it.

To help us get an accurate gauge of how much travel assistance will be needed, please begin the process of securing travel funding as soon as possible, and let us know how much assistance you’re likely to need.

Program and speakers: The program and speakers will be confirmed over the coming weeks. Sessions will cover topics such as national and international Open Access advocacy, campus advocacy, best practices on engagement and peer-to-peer education, working with professional societies, Open Access Week 2012, and more.

Registration: Registration for the conference will open in the next two weeks. In the meantime, please fill out the brief questionnaire below which will help greatly in the planning process.

You will receive an email at the address entered in the form above when registration opens, and we look forward to seeing you in Budapest this summer! If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please email nick [at] arl [dot] org.

Medsin & Open Access

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:34:02 UT

EFPSA Congress 2012

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:32:21 UT

Press the Press: Announcing the FRPAA Day of Action on April 25th!

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:57:48 UT

On April 25th, the Right to Research Coalition will host a Day of Action in support of the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), which would revolutionize students’ access to scholarly research by requiring that all federally-funded research be made openly available to the public. Students are encouraged to write op-eds and letters to the editor for publication in their local and campus newspapers, and write their legislators encouraging them to support and co-sponsor the bill. Students have already made a real impact, helping to secure a number of FRPAA’s 26 new co-sponsors, and April 25th will serve as a springboard to amplify student influence and help make FRPAA a reality.

For additional background information on the legislation, see our FRPAA call to action.

3 simple ways you can participate in the FRPAA Day of Action

1. Write for your local paper.

First and foremost: on April 25th, write and submit an op-ed or letter to the editor (LTE) supporting FRPAA to your local or campus newspaper – the bigger the outlet, the better. Writing an article in your local newspaper is one of the most effective ways to influence your representatives, so be sure to mention your legislators by name and send a copy to their offices once it’s published. Your piece may not necessarily run on the 25th, but we’ll be collecting all of the articles that are published over that next week as a result of the Day of Action to use in lobbying Congress.

Read our detailed guide and talking points for writing op-eds and LTEs.

2. Lobby directly.

Write to your legislators and ask that they support FRPAA . You can do so directly from our legislative action center (hosted by the Alliance for Taxpayer Access), which includes a customizable template letter.

3. Get the word out.

Raise awareness of FRPAA through Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites, blogs, and any appropriate mailing lists you may be a part of. Encourage your friends and colleagues to consider writing op-eds and LTEs as well, and to contact their Congressional representatives and encourage them to support FRPAA.

For more ways to support public access to federally-funded research and additional resources, see our FRPAA call to action.

Follow up!

Once your op-ed or letter to the editor is published, make sure you forward it to your representatives, and send a copy to nick [at] arl [dot] org so we can be sure to publicize your contribution and use it to lobby for FRPAA’s passage.

Guide for writing FRPAA Day of Action op-eds and letters to the editor

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:49:55 UT

Op-eds: Op-eds tend to be more challenging to get published, but the results are definitely worth the effort – it’s a 500-800 word spot in the newspaper to tell readers exactly what we want them to know. A great strategy for op-eds is to co-sign them with coalition partners or another influential person, for example, the student government president or the chair of the faculty senate.

The normal process is to submit your op-ed with a cover letter to the opinion editor, but make sure to check for any special instructions. Then, follow up ruthlessly. Did they get it? Will they print it? When? Can you make any adjustments?

Letters to the Editor (LTE): LTEs are typically the easiest form of opinion coverage to get, because newspapers typically publish a number of letters in every issue. Generally, LTEs are short – 150-250 words – and respond directly to an article published in the paper you’re submitting it to. The more LTEs submitted on a single topic, the more likely it is that one of them will get published – so you can increase your chances by organizing other students to submit letters at the same time. See the materials section of this toolkit for a sample LTE and writing tips.

Each newspaper has its own guidelines for submitting letters, so make sure to follow them. It’s very important to include your contact info, because most editors will want to confirm that you wrote the letter before printing it. When you submit your LTE, call the opinion editor to make sure they received it and make a quick pitch for why it’s an important letter to print.

Writing tips:

If possible, write your letter in response to a recent article, it will be more likely to get printed.
Hook the reader with an interesting anecdote, question or provocative statement.
Wherever possible, use facts or examples rather than rhetoric. Show rather than tell.
It’s ok to show emotion like anger or frustration over access to journals, just don’t go overboard.
Keep it short. Short letters are more likely to get printed.

Talking points:

Connect with your audience and build a narrative. Tell a story about a time you couldn’t get access to an article you needed. Explain how less wealthy countries have very little access to research, which all too often costs lives. Discuss the impact limited access to research has on patients and our healthcare system.
Use facts specific to your institution, such as how much your most expensive journal title costs and how much your institution spends per year on access to journals. Also be sure to mention if there are any Open Access initiatives or policies in place on your campus. Your campus library will very likely be supportive and able to give you these facts.
Point out that even though we pay for research to be conducted, we still have to buy the results back from academic publishers at often-exorbitant amounts, effectively meaning we pay twice for this research.
Note that there is, however, a positive way to deal with this, FRPAA.
Explain what FRPAA is and how it will greatly expand the research to which students have access, particularly those at less wealthy institutions.
Explain that FRPAA will lead to increased scientific productivity, increased innovation, and ultimately benefit the US economy. See our resources below for citations.
Explain that your library card expires at graduation, and policies like FRPAA are be crucial to ensure the public – rather than just those at wealthy institutions – have adequate access to research.
52 Nobel Laureates have signed a letter supporting FRPAA.
AAAS and Nature Publishing Group explicitly support the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy, which FRPAA expands to include all federally-funded research.
Tout the success of the NIH Public Access Policy, which makes 90,000 NIH-funded articles freely available through PubMed Central. See our resources below.
Explicitly call on your Senators and Representative by name to support and co-sponsor FRPAA.

Resources

FRPAA Background

Economic Benefits of FRPAA / Public Access

Committee for Economic Development Report, "The Future of Taxpayer-Funded Research: Who Will Control the Results?"
Houghton Report: "Economic and Social Returns on Investment in Open Archiving Publicly Funded Research Outputs."
Analogous benefits from the Human Genome Project (benefits of openness in research)
- Economic Impact of the Human Genome Project. Battelle Technology Partnership Practice
- Intellectual property rights and innovation: Evidence from the human genome. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series

NIH Policy

Cost of Journals

[Guide and writing tips adapted from the StudentPIRG’s Textbooks Campaign Media Toolkit]