S-0483.1
SENATE BILL 5152
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By Senators Warnick, Dozier, Hasegawa, and Shewmake
Prefiled 01/07/25. Read first time 01/13/25. Referred to Committee on State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections.
AN ACT Relating to state employee access to peer-reviewed journals; creating new sections; making an appropriation; 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.