The Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) is a proposal to require open public access to research funded by eleven U.S. federal government agencies. It was originally proposed by Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman in 2006[1] and then again in 2010, and then once more in 2012.[2]
A later version of the bill, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, was introduced in 2013, 2015 and 2017.[3]
The FRPAA would require that those eleven agencies with research expenditures over $100 million, create online repositories of journal articles of the research completed by that agency and make them publicly available. They must be maintained and preserved by the agency, or another repository that permits free and open access. It must be available to users without charge within six months after it has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.[4]
The agencies included in this bill are:[5]
| Congress | Short title | Bill number(s) | Date introduced | Sponsor(s) | # of cosponsors | Latest status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 109th Congress | Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 | S. 2695 | May 2, 2006 | John Cornyn
(R-TX) |
2 | Died in committee |
| 111th Congress | Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 | H.R. 5037 | April 15, 2010 | Mike Doyle
(D-PA) |
16 | Died in committee |
| Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010 | H.R. 5253 | May 6, 2010 | Todd Tiahrt
(R-KS) |
0 | Died in committee | |
| Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 | S. 1373 | June 25, 2009 | Joe Lieberman
(I-CT) |
1 | Died in committee | |
| 112th Congress | Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 | H.R. 4004 | February 9, 2012 | Mike Doyle
(D-PA) |
34 | Died in committee |
| S. 2096 | February 9, 2012 | John Cornyn
(R-TX) |
3 | Died in committee |
In addition to Senator John Cornyn and Senator Joe Lieberman, Representative Michael F. Doyle, along with Frederick Boucher, Michael Capuano, Jerry Costello, Bill Foster, Barney Frank, Gregg Harper, Paul Hodes, Tim Holden, Dennis Kucinich, Rick Larsen, Zoe Lofgren, Stephen Lynch, Dana Rohrabacher, Fortney Stark, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Henry Waxman have co-sponsored a similar bill in the House of Representatives (H.R. 5037[6]).
As of July 19, 2010, 120 Higher Education Leaders support this bill.[7]
On March 28, 2012, 52 Nobel Laureates signed an open letter to the US Congress expressing their support for this bill.[8]
The Association of American Publishers opposes the bill on behalf of 81 scholarly publishing organizations alleging that the bill forces the same deadline for disciplines in which that deadline is burdensome, limits the options of government-funded researchers, forces a change in publishers' business models, and will create a cost burden on federal agencies.[9]
