A Call to Action: Oppose the Research Works Act - Jan. 30, 2012

The proposed Research Works Act (RWA) works against open access to taxpayer-funded research.

On the heels of the White House's Office of Science & Technology Policy's Request for Information--issued in December 2011 and completed January 12, 2012--two Congressmen who have received several donations from a large commercial publisher sponsored this bill in Congress seeking to essentially outlaw public access policies like that of the National Institutes of Health. Please read the Alliance for Taxpayer Access's information and see the collection of resources compiled by the Harvard Open Access Project, Harvard Law School.

There are a couple of opportunities to register your opposition to the RWA:

1. In order for the White House to take action, 25,000 signatures are needed on the petition at whitehouse.gov by February 22, 2012. Please go to the White House's We the People site and sign!   You will need a whitehouse.gov account in order to do this.  Registration is quick and easy.


2. There is a second petition you can sign to show your opposition to the RWA.