US Congress and European Research Council insist on open access to research results

The US Congress and the European Research Council (ERC) have announced mandatory open access policies that direct researchers to deposit their manuscripts with PubMed Central or other specified online medical databases that are freely available to the public.

The US mandate was signed into law by the president, George Bush, on 26 December and follows nearly four years of contentious debate. The Association of American Publishers opposed the policy, saying that it “eliminates the concept of permission and effectively allows the agency to take important property interests without compensation, including the value added to the article …