In late July 2015, the open access (OA) arena saw advancements on both ends of the policy and practice spectrum. In terms of policy, proposed legislation in the U.S. for improved public access to publicly funded research moved closer to a Senate vote. Meanwhile, an international group of OA practitioners proposed a controlled vocabulary for resource types to help harmonize materials across repositories. Both steps, in entirely different ways, aim to improve the availability and therefore the uptake of openly accessible research.
