The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Momentum Grows for Mandated Open Access to Research:

Supporters of open access to scientific research are pressuring the federal government to make open access mandatory, now that data suggest that the National Institutes of Health’s policy merely requesting open access to research it has financed within a year of publication is a failure….

Last month, the NIH reported that just 3.8% of the articles published since the policy took effect last May had been provided free on the Web.

From the Washington Post, Government Health Researchers Pressed to Share Data at No Charge:

Political momentum is growing for a change in federal policy that would require government-funded health researchers to make the results of their work freely available on the Internet. Advocates say taxpayers should not have to pay hundreds of dollars for subscriptions to scientific journals to see the results of research they already have paid for. Many journals charge $35 or more just to see one article — a cost that can snowball as patients seek the latest information about their illnesses.

Publishers have successfully fought the "public access" movement for years, saying the approach threatens their subscription base and would undercut their roles as peer reviewers and archivists of scientific knowledge….

A spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said last week that the senator has been mulling over broader language that would compel public disclosure of research findings from an even greater number of federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.