Notes on the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act

• This page is part of the Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP).
• Suggested short URL for this page = bit.ly/hoap-fastr
• Also see Notes on the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA).

FASTR provisions

• The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act is the successor to the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). FRPAA had been introduced in three earlier sessions of Congress (May 2006, April 2009, and February 2012) but had not come up for a vote. In the 113th Congress, Congressional supporters of OA decided to introduced a modified bill. The result is FASTR, a new and strengthened version of FRPAA. Both bills would require open access (OA) to peer-reviewed manuscripts of articles reporting the results of federally-funded research.

• Because FRPAA is well-known, we organize this section by comparing FASTR with FRPAA. (Section numbers in parentheses refer to FASTR, not FRPAA.)

• How FASTR and FRPAA are the same:
  1. Both cover the same set of agencies, namely, all those spending at least $100 million/year to fund extramural research (Section 4.a).
  2. Both give agencies one year from the passage of the bill (4.a) to develop their policies in conformity with the guidelines laid down in the bill.
  3. Both mandate "public access" (4.a.1, 4.b, 4.f.2.A), "free online public access" (4.b.4), and "free public access" (4.b.7.B, 4.f.2.A) without defining these terms.
  4. Both mandate green OA (through repositories) (4.b.7.A), and are silent on gold OA (through journals).
  5. Both require deposit of the final version of the author's peer-reviewed manuscript (4.b.1). Both allow consenting publishers to replace that version with the published version (4.b.3).
  6. Both give agencies freedom to designate a suitable repository for the mandatory deposits, when suitability includes "free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation" (4.b.7). Agencies may host their own repositories, the way NIH hosts PubMed Central, or ask grantees to deposit in suitable institutional or disciplinary repositories.
  7. Both apply to research funded "in whole or in part" (4.b.1) by one of the covered federal agencies.
  8. Both ask for OA "as soon as practicable" after publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and both require OA "no later than 6 months" after publication (4.b.4). Both require immediate OA (unembargoed OA) for works by government-employed researchers (4.c).
  9. Both avoid copyright problems by requiring agency policies to "make effective use of any law or guidance relating to the creation and reservation of a Government license that provides for the reproduction, publication, release, or other uses of a final manuscript for Federal purposes" (4.c.3).
  10. Both exempt classified research, unpublished research, royalty-producing research such as books, and patentable discoveries (4.d.3).
  11. Both are explicit in not amending copyright law or patent law (4.e).

• How FASTR and FRPAA differ:
  1. FASTR contains a provision on coordinating agency policies (4.a 2): "To the extent practicable, Federal agencies required to develop a policy...shall follow common procedures for the collection and depositing of research papers." This will reduce the burden on universities of complying with different procedures from different agencies, and should have no detrimental effect on OA. Indeed, it should improve compliance with agency OA policies.
  2. FASTR contains three provisions calling for libre OA or open licensing:
     • FASTR includes a new "finding" in its preamble (2.3): "the United States has a substantial interest in maximizing the impact and utility of the researchit funds by enabling a wide range of reuses of the peer-reviewed literature that reports the results of such research, including by enabling computationalanalysis by state-of-the-art technologies."
     • FASTR includes a provision on formatting and licensing provision (4.b.5): the versions deposited in repositories and made OA shall be distributed "in formats and under terms that enable productive reuse, including computational analysis by state-of-the-art technologies."
     • FASTR requires that the annual report from each covered agency include a statement from the agency on "whether the terms of use applicable to such research papers are effective in enabling productive reuse and computational analysis by state-of-the-art technologies" (4.f.2.B.i) and the results of the agency's "examination of whether such research papers should include a royalty-free copyright license that is available to the public and that permits the reuse of those research papers, on the condition that attribution is given to the author or authors of the research and any others designated by the copyright owner" (4.f.2.B.ii).

FASTR in the 113th Congress

• FASTR in the Senate (S. ____)
  • Introduced on February 13, 2013 by John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

• FASTR in the House (H.R. ____)
  • Introduced February 13, 2013 by Mike Doyle (D-PA), Kevin Yoder (R-KS)

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More to come. This page will be organized like our page on FRPAA.