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:

 

Access to Journals

• Frequently Asked Questions

The Congress

• Letter to Francis Collins, NIH Director, by House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health Chairman Joe Pitts
  The letter expresses concern that the NIH Public Access Policy undermines the competitiveness of STM journal publishers, and seeks additional information on the NIH Public Access Policy, PubMedCentral, and its impact onthe science, technology and medical publishing fields. This is part of a broad Committee effort toreview of agencies under its jurisdiction to prevent federal regulation from undermining the ability of the private sector to create or sustain jobs.
• Allan Adler Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Government Mandates on Journal Articles - July 2010
• 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.
• Letter to John Holdren, Director of OSTP by Reps. Issa and Maloney regarding issues related to public information and access
• Letter from AAP & DC Principles in Opposition to the Provision Expanding the NIH Public Access Policy to other Federal Agencies in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill  
  

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

• OSTPRequest for Information on Public Access to Digital Data and Scientific Publications
  The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has opened a public request for information on federal access policies for scientific publication. Publishers have repeatedly expressed their concernsthat a mandatory public access policy would have a negative impact on the quality and development of scientific communications, and Members of Congress have sent letters to the Administration with similar concerns about the potential offederal regulation to undermine the ability of the private sector to create or sustain jobs (see letters in The Congress above). The deadline for submission of comments is January 2, 2012, and you are encouraged to let OSTP know your thoughts on access mandates by email to publicaccess@ostp.gov.

• Report and Recommendations from the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable
  In June 2009, the Committee on Science and Technology of the United States House of Representatives, in coordination with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), convened a Scholarly Publishing Roundtable to examine the current state of scholarly publishing and develop consensus recommendations for expanding public access to the journal articles arising from research funded by agencies of the United States government.  The Report and Recommendations from the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable was issued in January 2010.  While PSP endorses the five shared principles in the Roundtable report, PSP has expressed its reservations regarding a number of the report’s recommendations and sent a letter to The Honorable Bart Gordon, Chairman, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives. 

• 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.

• The Impact of the NIH Public Access Policy On Professional and Scholarly Publishing
  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.