Yale Daily News highlights library’s support for open access to research

Several library leaders contributed to a Jan. 30 Yale Daily News (YDN) article about the Nelson Memo, a new White House mandate that will require researchers to provide immediate, free, public access to all research publications and data funded by the U.S. government.

In the high-stakes world of scholarly research, open access ensures faster dissemination of important discoveries and helps to level the playing field for researchers, institutions, and countries that lack the resources to subscribe to expensive academic journals.

Previously, open-access rules applied only to some government-funded research, and publishers could embargo articles for 12 months before providing open access. The Nelson Memo, effective December 2024, requires full and immediate access, and covers not only the published research results but also the underlying datasets.

Responding to YDN questions, Barbara Rockenbach, Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian, and colleagues Daniel Dollar, Sandra Aya Enimil, and Lindsay Barnett expressed their strong support of the expanded government mandate.

“In essence, the Nelson Memo has made [Yale Library’s] long-standing value of barrier-free access to information a policy that will require compliance,” Rockenbach told the YDN. “Our values backed by policy will help us achieve a more open and equitable system of research more quickly.”

 See all Yale Library programs for open access publishing.

Read the YDN article, “White House memo pushes Yale research toward public accessibility.”

—Patricia M. Carey