Access2Research

Access2Research is a campaign in the United States for academic journal publishing reform led by open access advocates Michael W. Carroll, Heather Joseph, Mike Rossner, and John Wilbanks.

[1] On May 20, 2012, it launched a petition to the White House to "require free access over the Internet to journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research".

It follows initiatives previously targeted at academics such as The Cost of Knowledge calling for lower prices for scholarly journals and to promote increased access to scientific information.

The campaign refers to the NIH Public Access Policy[6] as an example of a mandate that should be expanded to all federally funded research.

[32] The petition has been criticized by a spokesperson for the Association of American Publishers who said they "oppose government mandates on research publications",[33] whereas Public Library of Science co-founder Michael Eisen referred to the petition as a "compromise" that does not go far enough, pointing out that the NIH policy allows for delayed open access.

A video by SPARC in support of the campaign.
A normalized heatmap of per-capita signatures to the petition by U.S. state. Highest support from Massachusetts (red), lowest from Mississippi (white).
The Access2Research Founders, Heather Joseph , John Wilbanks , Michael W. Carroll and Mike Rossner after meeting at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy .