STUDENT SENATE BILL 2006-1055

 

 

TITLE:

Resolution in Support of the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006

 

AUTHOR:

Senator Gavin Baker

 

SPONSORS:

Senator Cecilia Amador, Senator Gavin Baker, Senator J. Clayton Brett, Senator Grasshopper Illangkoon, Senator Jianlin Li, Senator Pedro Morales, Senator Michael Nelson, Senator Amit Sardesai, Senator Richard Slaughter, Senator Xu Michael Zhao

 

WHEREAS,

writing research papers is an essential feature of the curriculum of many University of Florida courses; and

 

WHEREAS,

such assignments require access to articles published in academic journals; and

 

WHEREAS,

student access to scholarly literature is primarily provided by subscriptions through university libraries; and

 

WHEREAS,

U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) introduced Senate Bill 2695, the Federal Research Public Access Act, on May 2, 2006; and

 

WHEREAS,

the Federal Research Public Access Act would require that U.S. government agencies with annual extramural research expenditures of over $100 million make manuscripts of journal articles stemming from research funded by that agency publicly available via the Internet no later than six months after its publication in a peer-reviewed journal; and

 

WHEREAS,

the U.S. government invests more than $55 billion in research annually, resulting in thousands of journal articles published annually; and

 

WHEREAS,

this legislation will mean enhanced access to federally-funded research articles for researchers and students, according to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition; then

 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the students of the University of Florida urge the Administration to publicly support the Federal Research Public Access Act and access to academic research; and

 

THEREFORE, BE IT FUTHER RESOLVED that the students of the University of Florida urge the Florida Students Association and the student governments of other universities to do likewise; and

 

THEREFORE, BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the students of the University of Florida urge the U.S. Congress to pass the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006.