Twenty four additional Representatives have cosponsored the Federal Research Public Access Act, (FPRAA, H.R.4004), introduced by Rep. Doyle on February 9. The bill would require Federal Agencies to collect digital copies of peer-reviewed journal articles that result from research supported by their grants, to create and maintain a stable digital repository containing the articles, to make them publicly accessible online, and to produce an online bibliography of all the publicly accessible papers with hyperlinks to them. Companion legislation in the Senate, S.2096, was introduced by Sen. Cornyn and cosponsored by Sens. Hutchison and Wyden.

Click here for the complete text of the legislation.

The added interest in the bill follows a Congressional briefing held yesterday that was sponaored by Rep. Doyle’s office and moderated by Heather Joseph of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. (More on info on the briefing, and the full sponsorship of the FPRAA is here.)