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Open publicly funded research results
Publicly funded research results are typically published in a journal that requires a subscription. Results should be published online, free for anyone to access. This could be accomplished quite simply by making open publishing a condition of the research grant.

Why Is This Idea Important?

For the greater diffusion of knowledge. This is a no-brainer. You can find discussion of the issue many places online (just google "publicly funded research publishing") and a recent NPR report on pernicious new legislation here: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/04/28/pm_copyright/
Comments
dwheeler 9 months ago
Yes, this is a good idea. This is often termed "open access". NIH does this, see: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm
but this idea should be applied more broadly.
klevier 9 months ago
Yes, I would like to have access to current medical research data without a subscription. It seems that when the research is funded by tax dollars everyone should have access to it for free.
soularmojo 9 months ago
Publishing of rsearch results steming from public dollars would raise the level of inteligence and awareness of the citizens who payed for it in the firs place. I we do not allow this we will continue to be an self sustaining ignorant socity. This can't be the way any rational citzen would wish to be.
betsy 9 months ago
Yes, and if universities get federal funds (all do) they should have to provide community memeberships for a subscription to the public. People shold be able to access the databases and read articles online.
markericksonkirk 9 months ago
This idea, which is very good, should be expanded to not just capture data that is published in journal articles, but also to capture data that appears in government reports (which may not subsequently be transformed into journal articles).

I would add/amplify that ALL government generated data that is not classified should be so captured.

A detail that needs to be addressed, however, is the multiple reporting of data. Oftentimes the same data will appear in a government report and then in one, or several, journal articles. A means needs to be found to ensure that the same data does not appear twice (or more times) in the government database just because the data was published twice (or more times).
metropol_47 9 months ago
YES! Great idea...
azurex120 9 months ago
For the most part I agree, but there should be some things set aside for national security...
lloydc23 9 months ago
This is a great idea, and we already have it. This is currently a requirement of government funded research. The problem is that John Conyers in Congress is working to remove the requirement.
npolimeni 9 months ago
There should be a further precondition to public research, since any publicly funded research is going to use money from the citizens' pocket: There should be public review, prior to passage.

This proposition yet another important component of the Transparency issue. Like them, it needs to be funded. My proposition for "Funding New Ideas Pilots" can help this and other good ideas get off the ground. The costs would be minimal for pilots, and it would prove or disprove the workability, and with proven workability it would be difficult many legislators to stand against them for permanent addition to the law.
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