Biss Bill Seeks To Break Academic Journal Cartel

State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) wants Illinois’ state universities to join the hundreds of institutions worldwide that have “open access” policies to make taxpayer-funded research available to the public at no cost.

His Senate colleagues agreed with him today, approving Senate Bill 1900 — the Open Access to Research Articles Act — by a vote of 52-0.

“Making scholarly articles available to the public maximizes the benefits of publicly funded research; unfortunately, most scholarship remains locked away from the public in expensive academic journals,” Biss said in a news release.