U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

59–010 

" ! SENATE 

114TH CONGRESS

2d Session 

REPORT

2016

114–224 

Calendar No. 384 

FAIR ACCESS TO SCIENCE AND 

TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH ACT OF 2015 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 779 

TO PROVIDE FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES TO DEVELOP PUBLIC 

ACCESS POLICIES RELATING TO RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY 

EMPLOYEES OF THAT AGENCY OR FROM FUNDS ADMINISTERED 

BY THAT AGENCY 

MARCH 8, 2016.—Ordered to be printed 


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

BEN SASSE, Nebraska 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

KEITH B. ASHDOWN, Staff Director 

CHRISTOPHER R. HIXON, Chief Counsel 

PATRICK J. BAILEY, Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

GABRIELLE D’ADAMO SINGER, Deputy Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

DREW C. BANEY, Professional Staff Member 

GABRIELLE A. BATKIN, Minority Staff Director 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Minority Deputy Staff Director 

MARY BETH SCHULTZ, Minority Chief Counsel 

JOHN A. KANE, Minority Senior Governmental Affairs Advisor 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 


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Calendar No. 384 

114TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 2d Session 114–224 

FAIR ACCESS TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH 

ACT OF 2015 

MARCH 8, 2016.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. JOHNSON, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 779] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 779) to provide for Federal agencies to develop public access policies relating to research conducted 

by employees of that agency or from funds administered by that 

agency, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with 

an amendment and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background and Need for the Legislation ................................................... 2 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 3 

IV. Section-by-Section Analysis .......................................................................... 3 

V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 4 

VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate ................................................ 5 

VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported ........................... 6 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

S. 779, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act 

of 2015, would require Federal agencies with annual research expenditures of over $100 million to develop policies that provide for 

free public access to the manuscripts resulting from Federally-funded research or the peer-reviewed published journal articles if the 

publisher consents to free publication, within one year after publication. The bill is prospective and only applies to research projects 

for which Federal funding is awarded after the date of enactment. 


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1 NIH Budget—About NIH—National Institutes of Health (Jan. 20, 2016), http://www.nih.gov/ 

about-nih/what-we-do/budget. 2 Ian Sample, Harvard University says it can’t afford journal publishers’ prices, The GUARDIAN

(Apr. 24, 2012, 12:45 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-universityjournal-publishers-prices. 3The Committee for Economic Development, The Future of Taxpayer-Funded Research: Who 

Will Control Access to the Results, 9 (2012), available at https://www.ced.org/pdf/The-Future-ofTaxpayer-Funded-Research.pdf. 4Pub. L. No. 110–161, Division G, Title II, Section 218 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 

2008). 5PMC Overview, Free Access: A Core Principle of PMC (Sept. 18, 2015), http:// 

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/intro/. 6 NIH Budget—About NIH—National Institutes of Health (Jan. 20, 2016), http://www.nih.gov/ 

about-nih/what-we-do/budget. 7 National Institutes of Health, The NIH Public Access Policy (Apr. 2012), http:// 

publicaccess.nih.gov/publiclaccesslpolicylimplicationsl2012.pdf. 8 National Institutes of Health, Plan for Increasing Access to Scientific Publications and Digital Scientific Data from NIH Funded Scientific Research (Feb. 2015), available at http:// 

grants.nih.gov/grants/NIH-Public-Access-Plan.pdf. 9 NIHMS Statistics: Monthly Aggregate Submission Statistic (Jan. 20, 2016), http:// 

nihms.nih.gov/stats/. 10 Id. 11 U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central (Jan. 20, 2016), http:// 

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/. 

II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

Each year the Federal Government funds billions of dollars in 

basic and applied research.1 As part of the research process, researchers generally summarize their results in articles that are 

peer-reviewed by relevant scientific experts. The end product of 

this process is typically published in an academic journal. Usually, 

to gain access to these articles consumers must pay a one-time fee 

or have a subscription to the academic journal publishing the article.2

Because American taxpayers fund this research, it is important 

that they have free access to the results of the research. Over the 

past decade, there has been an accelerating recognition of the opportunity to increase the social and economic return on research by 

expanding the free accessibility of scientific articles to the general 

public.3

In 2008, Congress directed the National Institutes of Health 

(NIH) to require the deposit of manuscripts that summarize the 

findings of research funded by NIH into PubMed Central (PMC),4

a free, Internet-accessible archive of full text articles from peer-reviewed biomedical journals.5 The NIH is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, funding approximately $30 billion per year 

in basic and applied research.6 Approximately 100,000 articles are 

published each year reporting on this research.7 The 2008 requirement is a term and condition of extramural grants and contracts 

awarded.8 Since this policy was implemented, an average of 6,500 

NIH-funded articles per month have been added to the database 

through a combination of author and publisher submissions.9 The 

manuscripts are made freely available to the public after an embargo period, which cannot exceed 12 months.10 This database, which 

now contains more than 3.6 million research articles and is used 

by more than 1 million people per day,11 provides the NIH—and 

the public—with a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed articles summarizing NIH-funded research. 

With input from the National Science and Technology Council, on 

February 22, 2013, the Office of Science and Technology in the Executive Office of the President instructed each Federal agency with 

over $100 million in annual research and development expendiVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Mar 09, 2016 Jkt 059010 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR224.XXX SR224

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12Memorandum For The Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, from John P. 

Holdren, Director of White House Office of Science and Technology (Feb. 22, 2013), available 

at https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostplpublicl 

accesslmemol2013.pdf. 

tures to develop a plan supporting increased public access to the 

results of Federally-funded research.12 The directive set specific objectives for each agency to follow while it developed its plan. 

The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act of 2015 

builds upon the 2013 directive and the 2008 requirement for NIH 

by requiring all agencies with annual research expenditures of over 

$100 million to develop policies that provide for free public access 

to the manuscripts of research generated from taxpayer-funded 

grants. If the publisher of the research consents, the peer-reviewed 

articles are posted as well. 

Recognizing the different business models used by publishers 

that manage the peer review process and the editing and distribution of research articles, the legislation provides for a maximum 

one-year embargo after publication before articles resulting from 

Federally-funded research must be made freely available online. It 

provides a process by which stakeholders can petition to adjust the 

embargo period, and it exempts certain types of research output 

from public release. 

The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office 

(GAO) to report to Congress on the new process for public access 

to taxpayer-funded research. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

S. 779, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act 

of 2015, was introduced on March 18, 2015, by Senators John Cornyn and Ron Wyden, and was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Senators Ed Markey and 

Brian Schatz were added as co-sponsors to this bill on July 22, 

2015. 

The Committee considered the bill at a July 29, 2015, business 

meeting and ordered the bill reported favorably by voice vote, as 

amended by a substitute amendment offered by Senators Johnson 

and Carper. Members present for the vote were Senators Johnson, 

Portman, Lankford, Ernst, Sasse, Carper, Baldwin, Heitkamp, and 

Peters. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title 

This section provides the bill’s short title, the ‘‘Fair Access to 

Science and Technology Research Act of 2015.’’ 

Section 2. Findings 

This section states five Congressional findings related to the 

value of Federally-funded research to the general public and the 

scientific community. 

Section 3. Definition of Federal agency 

This section defines the term ‘‘Federal Agency’’. 


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Section 4. Federal research public access policy 

Section 4 requires Federal agencies with over $100,000,000 in extramural research expenditures to develop a Federal research public access policy. Each policy must include the following requirements: (1) submit an electronic version of the final manuscript or 

original research papers to a digital repository; (2) incorporate 

changes from the peer review publication process; (3) replace the 

final manuscript with the final published version if certain conditions are met; (4) provide free online public access to the final peerreviewed manuscript or published version within an appropriate 

time period; (5) allow members of the public and other stakeholders 

to request to adjust the time period before a final peer reviewed 

manuscript is made publicly available; (6) provide research papers 

in a format that enable reuse of the research and computational 

analysis; (7) improve the ability of the public to locate and access 

research papers made accessible under this policy; and (8) provide 

long-term preservation and free public access to published research 

findings. 

This section also specifies to whom agency public access policies 

apply and provides for exclusions to certain types of scientific information this policy shall not apply to, including research progress 

reports and presentations at professional meetings or conferences; 

laboratory notes, preliminary data analyses, notes of the author, 

phone logs, or other information used to produce final manuscripts; 

and classified research, research resulting in works that generate 

revenue or royalties for authors (e.g., books) or patentable discoveries, and authors who do not submit their work to a journal or 

works that are rejected by journals. 

The bill expressly states that it shall not be construed to affect 

any rights under Federal copyright, patent, or trademark laws 

under the provisions of titles 17 and 35, United States Code. The 

language in section 4(e) also ensures agencies implement public access policies in a manner consistent with copyright law. 

Finally, section 4 provides for a GAO report to be published no 

later than three years after the date of the enactment and every 

five years thereafter. The report shall include an (1) analysis of the 

period between the date on which each paper becomes publicly 

available in a journal and the date on which the paper is in the 

online repository of the applicable Federal agency; and (2) examines the effectiveness of the Federal research public access policy 

in providing the public with free online access to papers on Federally funded research. In doing so, the report shall provide an analysis on whether the current legislation is effective at enabling productive reuse of the research and computational analysis by stateof-the-art technologies; and examine whether such research papers 

should include a royalty-free copyright license that permits the 

reuse of those research papers, on the condition that attribution is 

given to the author or authors of the research. 

V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of 

the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill and determined that the bill will 

have no regulatory impact within the meaning of the rules. The 


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Committee agrees with the Congressional Budget Office’s statement that the bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 

(UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 

VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

AUGUST 25, 2015. 

Hon. RON JOHNSON, Chairman, 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 779, the Fair Access to 

Science and Technology Research Act of 2015. 

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased 

to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew Pickford. 

Sincerely, 

KEITH HALL. 

Enclosure. 

S. 779—Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act of 2015 

S. 779 would require federal agencies that spend $100 million or 

more annually on extramural research activities to make the results of such research freely available on the Internet. The bill also 

would direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue 

reports on the effectiveness of this bill in making government research available to the public. 

CBO estimates that implementing S. 779 would not have a significant federal cost. The bill could affect direct spending by agencies not funded through annual appropriations; therefore, pay-asyou-go procedures apply. CBO estimates, however, that any net increase in spending by those agencies would not be significant. Enacting S. 779 would not affect revenues. 

Most of the provisions of the bill would codify and expand current policies and practices of federal agencies. A memorandum 

from the Office of Science and Technology Policy dated February 

22, 2013, included a requirement that agencies develop and implement plans to make research funded by the federal government 

more widely available to the public. Consequently, CBO estimates 

that implementing this bill would not significantly increase the 

workload or administrative costs of federal agencies. 

S. 779 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates 

as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. Any costs incurred by public entities, such as public universities and research 

institutions participating in federal research programs would be incurred as conditions of receiving federal assistance. 

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew Pickford. 

This estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 


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VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Because this legislation would not repeal or amend any provision 

of current law, it would make no changes in existing law within the 

meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 

Standing Rules of the Senate. 

Æ 


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