Speak up! Let’s all benefit from the scientific research we fund.

Summary:  Here’s an opportunity to pressure the government to open up the research we fund, rather than letting the benefits flow to well-connected scientists and corporations.  This would make a long-term difference in a dozen different fields, including climate science.

Tell The White House And Congress: Unlock Science Research

Every year the National Science Foundation hands out nearly $7 billion to fund scientific research in America.  But even though your tax dollars are paying for the work, to get the results you need to pay money to for-profit journal publishers who control the content.  It’s silly and unfair: if we’re paying for the research,we should get to see the results!

Three years ago this week, the National Institutes of Health announced that all medical research they fund would have to be published as “open access” — available to anyone, for free, over the Internet.  The policy has been a huge success, but now it’s time for the rest of the government to follow suit.

That’s why we’re teaming up with libraries, universities, and patient advocacy groups to demand every publicly-funded publication be made open access.  If we’re going to be spending billions of dollars on research, the least they can do is let us read it.

Can you sign our petition to the White House and Congress?  We’ll deliver your signatures with our partners later this week.  Here’s more background, from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

Petition to Congress and President Obama:

When the government pays for scientific research, it does so to benefit the public — not so private profiteers can make more money. Americans should have free access to research funded by the National Science Foundation.

Click here to sign the petition.

Other posts about the process of science

1. A look at the science and politics of global warming, 12 June 2008
2. President Kennedy speaks to us about global warming and Climate Science, 7 August 2008
3. “Aliens cause global warming”: wise words from the late Michael Crichton, 15 November 2008
4. My “wish list” for the climate sciences in 2009, 2 January 2009
5. Peer review of scientific work – another example of a flawed basis for public policy, 22 January 2009
6. Obama opens his Administration with a powerful act that will echo for many years, 4 February 2009
7. Science in action, a confused and often nasty debate among scientists, 5 February 2009
8. Richard Feynmann, one of the 20th centuries greatest scientists, talks to us about climate science, 12 February 2009
9. An opportunity to judge for yourself the adequacy of today’s climate science, 2 March 2009
10. Lost voices in the climate science debate, 22 April 2009
11. More attempts to control the climate science debate using smears and swarming, 19 October 2009
12. An important letter sent to the President about the danger of climate change, 24 October 2009
13. Important News, still breaking, about Climate Science propaganda, 21 November 2009
14. About the significance of the CRU hack, and this look behind the curtain at climate science work, 22 November 2009
15. Quote of the day – hidden history for people who rely on the mainstream media for information, 12 February 2010
16. The hidden history of the global warming crusade, 19 February 2010
17. A real-time example of the birth and spread of climate propaganda, 9 March 2010
18. “Most scientific papers are probably wrong” – New Scientist, 20 June 2010
19. “Climate Change: what do we know about the IPCC?”, 27 June 2010
20. Programs to reshape the American mind, run by the left and right, 2 August 2010
21. Climate science: the debate, the eventual solution, and the best cheap seats from which to watch the action., 19 August 2010
22. Puncturing the false picture of a scientific consensus about the causes and effects of global warming, 20 September 2010