Thomas Walker, an entomologist at the U of Florida, discovered that his (unnamed) professional society took a position against the NIH policy without consulting the members. In a recent letter it asked members to sign a petition in support of DC Principles Coalition, an organization which lobbies against the NIH policy and in favor of the Conyers bill.
Walker would like to know whether other societies taking similar steps.
PS: I've often seen society publishers take a public stance against the NIH policy or FRPAA without apparently consulting their members. See examples from 2006, 2007, 2008. Also see our past posts on Walker.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/09/2009 10:59:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.