H-1391.1
SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1606
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By House Appropriations (originally sponsored by Representatives Engell, Bernbaum, Orcutt, Corry, Reeves, Waters, Ramel, Parshley, Reed, Ormsby, and Nance)
READ FIRST TIME 02/14/25.
AN ACT Relating to state employee access to peer-reviewed journals; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that state agencies often do not have comprehensive electronic access to many peer-reviewed journals. As a result, state employees often must purchase specific manuscripts, outsource searches to other entities, or physically visit a university library in order to access many peer-reviewed journals. Locating a specific manuscript can take hours of staff time and is neither an efficient nor a cost-effective use of state resources. Other states have created statewide collectives for providing access to peer-reviewed journals, resulting in both increased access to peer-reviewed journals as well as significant cost savings. In light of the benefits that other states have experienced in connection with statewide subscriptions to peer-reviewed journals, the legislature seeks to learn whether such a subscription model would be beneficial in Washington.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The Washington state institute for public policy is directed to conduct a study that addresses, at a minimum, potential funding, organizational structure, and policy mechanisms that would provide state employees with electronic access to peer-reviewed journals. For the purposes of this study, "peer-reviewed journal" means any academic, scholarly, or scientific peer-reviewed journal.