In the wider world, it’s worth noting that on Boxing day, or the day after Christmas, as the Americans call it, research funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) was mandated by law to be made open access within 12 months of publication. The full story is up on the SPARC newsletter, along with a fairly detailed history of open access movements during 2007.

The length and ferocity of the battle over NIH funded research makes this a major victory for open access, although far from the end of the war. However, as a statement on the acceptance of open access principles, and therefore tacitly, usage of institutional repositories, there can hardly come much bigger than from the White House.