Publisher Lobby Opposes Strengthening NIH Policy, Again Stevan Harnad 02 Jul 2007 22:10 UTC
Peter Suber says it all: From Peter Suber's Open Access News http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_07_01_fosblogarchive.html#7012952153392015231 Publishers oppose strengthening the NIH policy, again The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has released a June 25 letter from a group of society publishers to members of Congress. http://www.pspcentral.org/publications/LHHS_appropriations_bills.pdf The letter opposes appropriations bills now before Congress that would strengthen the NIH public access policy by converting it from a request to a requirement. http://publicaccess.nih.gov/ The publisher arguments are old, tired, and weak, and Congress now sees through them: -- an OA mandate at NIH will kill peer review... -- it will violate copyright... -- there's no need to compromise since publishers provide all the added value here and taxpayers none of it... -- European countries are not really adopting similar policies... -- researchers don't want it... -- the compliance rate with the current voluntary policy is not as dismal as it looks... -- and bad as the proposal is, it duplicates what publishers are already doing... I won't write a detailed rebuttal to this letter. But for detailed rebuttals to very similar past letters, see my March 30, 2007, response to a March 26 AAP letter opposed to strengthening the NIH policy, http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_03_25_fosblogarchive.html#117526221745302635 or my May 10, 2006, response to a May 9 AAP letter opposed to FRPAA . http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2006_05_07_fosblogarchive.html#114726726169346460 Posted by Peter Suber at 7/02/2007 04:48:00 PM. http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_07_01_fosblogarchive.html#7012952153392015231 ------------------ For more prior rebuttals (2004 - 2007) of the publishing lobby's same old, tired, and weak arguments against the UK, RCUK, NIH, FRPAA and EC OA Self-Archiving Mandate Proposals (and for the simple ways in which each mandate can be formulated in such a way as to completely remove the publishing lobby from the decision loop) see: A Simple Way to Optimize the NIH Public Access Policy http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4091.html Guide for the Perplexed: Re: UK Select Committee Inquiry http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4131.html Critique of PSP/AAP Critique of NIH Proposal http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4146.html Critique of STM Critique of NIH Proposal http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4174.html Critique of Stanford/HighWire Press Critique of NIH Proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4178.html Critique of PSP/AAP Critique of NIH Proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4146.html Critique of APS Critique of NIH Proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4197.html Please Don't Copy-Cat Clone NIH-12 Non-OA Policy! http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4307.html Critique of Graham Taylor's critique of the RCUK policy proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4631.html Open Letter to Research Councils UK: Rebuttal of ALPSP Critique http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4674.html Journal Publishing and Author Self-Archiving: Peaceful Co-Existence and Fruitful Collaboration http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/20-guid.html Rebuttal of STM Response to RCUK Self-Archiving Policy Proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4715.html Critique of Research Fortnight article on RCUK policy proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4760.html Not a Proud Day in the Annals of the Royal Society http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4931.html Critique of AAP/PSP Critique of FRPAA Proposal http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5397.html How to Counter All Opposition to the FRPAA Self-Archiving Mandate http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5398.html Feedback on the Brussels EC Meeting on Open Access http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/6160.html The Immediate-Deposit/Optional Access (ID/OA) Mandate: Rationale and Model http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html Optimizing OA Self-Archiving Mandates: What? Where? When? Why? How? http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html Stevan Harnad