Oppose HR 801 to Support public access to taxpayer funded studies

[gardenmom]

Please contact your House Representative to oppose bill H.R. 801, the "Fair Copyright in Research Act," that will limit public access to peer-reviewed journal articles and research manuscripts:
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/action/HR801-09-0211.html

From what I understand, the bill is currently in the Judiciary Committee. It is sponsored by by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), with four other reps. Conyers and the other sponsors apparently receive quite a bit of financial support from publishing companies who stand to benefit:
http://www.maplight.org/HR801_2009_Analysis

Keep government transparency and oppose this bill. We should not have to pay to purchase medical and other journals to get copies of studies that our tax dollars have already paid for.

[spudboy]

I have written to our Rep., Pete Stark about this. Here's a good article that covers the impact on patients and families: http://www.freep.com/article/20090305/NEWS15/903050359 "Like many parents of children with a chronic illness, Sally Nantais of Wyandotte invests a lot of time looking into ways to help her 17-year-old son, Austin, battle Fragile X Syndrome....But a new bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., would make it tough and costly to get to those studies."

The publishing companies have raised their rates 30-40% in the past 4 years, while inflation is only up 15% -- and the publishing companies don't pay the researchers, the journal editorial boards, or the peer reviewers. Your tax money, or your tuition money if you're a college student, does.