(110 ILCS 61/5)

Sec. 5. Purpose. The General Assembly finds and declares the following:

(1) to maximize the social and economic benefits of research to the public, the published research articles produced by faculty at public universities should be made as widely available as possible, wide availability referring both to the depth of availability of a given research article (including immediate availability where practicable, long-term preservation and free public access, and broad accessibility for reuse and further research) and the breadth of research articles made available;

(2) the public support these employees receive and the increased impact that broad public dissemination of research has is an important public purpose;

(3) many public universities have developed, or are developing, the capacity to provide free access over the Internet to such research through institutional repositories or otherwise; and

(4) a substantial portion of the research currently is not freely available over the Internet because the faculty have entered into publication agreements with terms that restrict public access to the fruits of unclassified research conducted by these State employees.

(Source: P.A. 98-295, eff. 8-9-13.)