Argentina Takes Steps Towards Open Access Law

Argentina is a step closer to becoming the first country to pass legislation to make all publicly funded research available in open access repositories.

The Chamber of Deputies passed a new bill last month (23 May) stating that all national scientific institutions must provide open access (OA) archives of their research, allowing the public full access to journal articles, dissertation theses and technical reports, as well as data obtained by publicly funded projects, but excluding confidential data.

To avoid conflict with copyright and intellectual property rights, full access to papers will commence six months after their first publication, and raw data will be available after five years. The law is now under consideration by the senate.