Public Policy & Legislation

The AAP PSP is actively involved in public policy issues that directly affect our members. Issues arise at all levels of government including:

 

The Congress

• Fair Copyright in Research Works Act – H.R. 801
  Passage of H.R. 801, the bipartisan Fair Copyright in Research Work Act is necessary to protect the copyright of private-sector research works and preserve incentives for investments in the peer-review publishing process that helps ensure the quality and integrity of scientific research. 
• Federal Research Public Access Act-- S. 1373
  Publishers have expressed opposition to the Federal Research Public Access Act, S. 1373.   The bill could negatively impact the system of independent, expert peer review managed by the private sector and integral to ensuring the quality of scientific research publications.  This bill is unnecessary and would impose new, costly mandates on federal agencies.
  

The Courts

• Google Lawsuit
  The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced the filing of a lawsuit against Google over its plans to digitally copy and distribute copyrighted works without permission of the copyright owners.
• OFAC
  The Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing division (AAP/PSP), the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), PEN American Center (PEN), and Arcade Publishing asked the court to strike down OFAC regulations that require publishers and authors to seek a license from the government to perform the routine activities necessary to publish foreign literature from embargoed countries such as Iran, Cuba, and Sudan in the United States.

The Administration

• White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
  The OSTP issued a request for comments on December 9, 2009 on “Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies Across the Federal Government.”  The AAP/PSP and DC Principles Coalition for Free Access to Science expressed their concerns in a submission indicating that a mandatory public access policy would have a negative impact on the quality and development of scientific communications.

• NIH Public Access Policy
  Mandated in 2008, the NIH public access policy requires that authors who have received grants from NIH must deposit any ensuing manuscripts written as a result of their research to NIH’s PubMed Central for free public access within 12 months of publication. Publishers opposed the mandate and expressed concerns throughout the implementation process.