Not-So-Open Access to Legal Scholarship: Balancing Stakeholder Interests with Copyright Principles

Last February, John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, issued a new policy designed to increase open access to federally-financed research. The memorandum, covering federal agencies with annual expenditures in excess of $100 million for scientific research and development, requires, inter alia, that: (1) agencies develop “clear and coordinated policies” to make federally- funded studies freely available to the public within one year of publication, and (2) researchers account for and manage the digital data resulting from federally-funded scientific research. In addition, the policy requires data from publicly-funded research to be stored for “long-term preservation and [be] publicly accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze in ways that maximize the impact and accountability of the Federal research investment.” The policy also encourages agencies to collaborate with each other as well as with private entities to accomplish these important goals.