Monday, March 24, 2014

FASTR - Proposed legislation would increase open access requirements

FASTR, the "Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act" has been introduced on both sides of Congress and referred to committees.

If passed, this bill would require
"Federal agenc(ies) with extramural research expenditures of over $100,000,000 (to) develop a ... public access policy...for the collection and depositing of papers...from research supported...from funding by the Federal Government..not later than 6 months after publication in peer reviewed journals..."
-From version S.350 of this bill, introduced 2/14/2014
FASTR is based on the  NIH Open Access Policy, which currently requires scientists to "submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts...(arising) from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central...(to be made) accessible to the public (within) 12 months of publication..." 

FASTR is also related to the recently announced policy of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  Like FASTR, the OSTP memo requires agencies to address peer reviewed publications. Unlike FASTR, this memo also requires federal agencies to address research data. Keep in mind, the OSTP policy is not a law. It is only in effect during the current administration. Who knows what will happen in two years?

Want to find out more about FASTR?
  • SPARC provides some background
  • Library Journal has summarized some of the debate surrounding this legislation
  • Go to congress.gov. Type the title "Fair Access to Science and Technology Research"in order to read the text of the bill and see the current status
Remember, the library has a guide to Scholarly Communications with background information on open access, author rights, and more.

CINAHL and other Ebsco databases might go down this Friday evening 3/28/2014

I just received this message that EBSCO will be working on CINAHL and some other databases between 9 pm and 11 pm EST this Friday 3/28/2014. These databases might not work during this time.

So night owls, plan ahead and do your research some other evening this week!

On Friday, March 28th, 2014EBSCOhost databases and services may be intermittently unavailable while EBSCO performs network upgrades. The service window is scheduled to begin at 9:00 PM EDT and end at 11:00 PM EDT. Patrons may experience intermittent access to EBSCOhost products and services for the duration of the service window.

The following NC LIVE resources are on the EBSCOhost platform and could experience intermittent access during this maintenance window:

  • Academic Search Complete 
  • Art & Architecture Complete 
  • Business Source Complete 
  • CINAHL with Full Text
  • Consumer Health Complete
  • eBooks on EBSCOhost 
  • Entrepreneurial Studies Source 
  • Environment Complete 
  • ERIC 
  • Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia
  • GreenFILE 
  • Health Source - Consumer Edition 
  • Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  • Legal Information Reference Center 
  • Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text
  • Literary Reference Center Plus 
  • MAS Complete 
  • MasterFILE Complete 
  • Middle Search Plus 
  • Military & Government Collection 
  • Newspaper Source Plus
  • Primary Search 
  • Regional Business News 
  • Science Reference Center 
  • Small Business Reference Center 
  • Teacher Reference Center 
  • Small Engine Repair Reference Center