General arguments in support of OA include concern for public access to taxpayer funded research: traditional subscription based models of scholarship restrict rather than encourage a free flow of information exchange because they limit taxpayer access to information.
The open access movement advocates for the removal of barriers by making the peer-reviewed results of taxpayer-funded research available online, and for no extra charge to the public. Here are a few of organizations supporting OA:
Alliance for Taxpayer Access
- Founded and administered by SPARC, the ATA is a diverse and growing alliance of organizations representing taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and institutions that support open public access to taxpayer-funded research. The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles on taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public.
Students for Free Culture
- Students for Free Culture is an international chapter-based student organization that promotes the public interest in intellectual property and information & communications technology policy.
Information Liberation
- “If your child has a life-threatening disease and you’re desperate to read the latest research, you’ll be dismayed to learn that you can’t – at least not without hugely expensive subscriptions to a bevy of specialized journals or access to a major research library….” (Mar. 7, 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal)
