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July 25, 2006

Harris Poll: Public Supports Easy and Free Online Access to Federally Funded Research

The June 16th edition of Healthcare News, a publication of HarrisInteractive, reports that a Harris Poll conducted in mid-April found that large majorities of U.S. adults hold the opinions that:

• results of federally funded research on health issues and other topics should be readily available (for free, and online) to doctors and the general public.
  
• availability of this type of research data on the Internet—and at no charge—will help those who cope with chronic illnesses or disabilities to get the latest information that can assist them.

More specifically,

• 83% of adults say they agree that since this research is paid for by tax dollars, the results should be easily available (free and online) to doctors.
  
• 82% of adults say they agree that if tax dollars pay for scientific research, people should have free access to the results of the research on the Internet.
  
• 81% of adults say they agree that having this information easily available (for free and online) will help those living with a chronic illness or disability get the latest information which will assist people coping with that chronic illness or disability.
  
• 62% of adults agree that if these research results are easily available (for free and online), it will help speed up finding potential cures for diseases
  
• 53% of adults disagree that “regardless of who pays for the research, it’s better for scientific journals to publish the information and make it available by paid subscription.”

Read the full report. Healthcare News: 6:6 (2006)

Posted by Katie Newman at July 25, 2006 12:50 PM