The online letter is an image scan and I only have time to rekey a short excerpt:
...The memberships of AAU and NASULGC include the major public and private research universities in the United States....
Our associations and their member universities have supported NIH's PubMed Central from its outset...
Because PubMed Central operates in manner that preserves the ability of journal publishers to continue to play their valuable role in the dissemination of new knowledge and discoveries, the only effect of H.R. 801 would be to deprive the public of the benefit of expanded access to the results of federally funded research....
Comment. This is important. It's the first time that the AAU has weighed in on behalf of the NIH policy, or the principle of OA for publicly-funded research. The AAU has great weight in Congress on copyright issues affecting research and higher education, and great weight with its member institutions. NASULGC is an equally significant voice, but this is not its first public endorsement of the NIH policy. Kudos to John Vaughn (at AAU) and David Shulenburger (at NASULGC) for taking this step.
Another perspective: With this letter, the major university associations in the US are joining the major library associations in supporting the NIH policy.
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.
