Over the last few years, open access (OA) policies have emerged in various countries to encourage grantees of public funds to make publications resulting from grant awards available in open access repositories. Some of the funding agencies even mandate OA. In the USA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) started their public access policy in May 2005, and new bills, such as the CURES Act and FRPAA have been introduced in the US Senate to promote the passage of OA. In the UK, the Research Councils (RCUK) finally issued their OA policy in June 2006. A few countries have already started implementation of OA policy, but many other countries are still developing OA policies.
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