Government Funded Reasearch Results to be Restricted

[Guest guest]

Hello,

Osteopenia3.com is likely to close if a bill recently introduced in the US Congress passes.

Two members of Congress — Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. — introduced a bill that would eliminate free access to the NIH site that publishes abstracts and some full texts of scientific research. (PubMed etc.)

This is the main site I use to track down the latest research in bone density studies and I often include either abstracts or links to full text articles on the web site for those of you who want to read the originals.

The bill, called the RESEARCH WORKS ACT would prohibit the NIH from requiring scientists to submit their articles to the online database. Taxpayers (whose taxes often funded the research studies in the first place) will have to pay $15 - $35 to read the full research results.

This is not the first attempt in Congress to limit free access to NIH information. But it is puzzling that Cong resswoman Maloney would sponsor this bill since she has always argued for keeping the Internet open.

BUT both Issa and Maloney received campaign contributions from the Dutch company Elsevier, which calls itself the world’s leading publisher of scientific and medical information. Elservier, Springer and other such companies expect to benefit from such limitation.

But the unintended result will be that fewer health care providers will have easy access to recent studies (who has the time to read all the journals - to say nothing of the costs.)

Having to pay such prices would mean the end of Osteopenia3.com and science based information I provide for you. (Also, I believe a number of other health related sites may also close or would become greatly restricted in the information provided.) I write in hopes that USA readers will contact your House of Representative person and ask them to defeat THE RESEARCH WORKS ACT if and when it comes to a vote....

There are several sites with information about this developement.

Here is a link to an article in ProPublica (Journalism in the public interest)

http://www.propublica.org/article/new-bill-would-put-taxpayer-funded-science-behind-pay-walls

I thank Lillian Kaiser of California for alerting me to this newly introduced bill.

Thank you for reading this far. If you live in the USA, your action/or non action could effect the continuation of Osteopenia3.com (as well as other health related sites that use scientific studies for their basis.)

Kate

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Please contact your congressmember and ask them to oppose HR 3699 The Reasearch Works Act.

The bill prohibits the Any Government Agency such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) from requiring a recipient of government funded research from requiring the researcher to post the results of the government funded research on a free website for the public to have free access.

You can find your congressmember by going to www.house.gov

put in your zip code to find your representative.

You can copy and paste the following form letter onto your browser to send to your representative.

Dear Congressmember___________________:

Please oppose HR 3699 The Research Works Act. This bill prohibits any government agency such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) from requiring the recipient of a government research grant from requiring the researcher to post the results of research paid for by the government to a free website where anyone can read the full results of the research the public paid for.

The bill tries to privatize research funded "in full or in part" by government defining it as "private sector research" that is somehow owned by the publisher of the Journal it appears in. This in spite of the fact that publishers do not pay the researcher for their work, and do not pay peer reviewers for their work. But those publishers want the right to charge the public for access to the research funded by government research grants.

Sincerely,

Your Name____________

Arnold