Richard Monastersky, American Society for Aerospace Science Halts Contacts With Researchers in Nations Under Embargo, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 6, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'In a sharp contrast with other American academic organizations, the main professional society for aerospace engineers and scientists has decided to ban the publication of papers by authors in Iran and other countries subject to a United States trade embargo. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics will also forbid such scientists to attend the institute's conferences in the future....The directors resolved that the "AIAA, consistent with U.S. laws and policies, shall not knowingly provide products or services to, or engage in formal, technical information exchange with, individuals or entities residing in embargoed nations," a statement on the organization's Web site says. "This restriction applies to staff as well as to members when they are acting on behalf of AIAA, and applies to all AIAA products and services." In addition to Iran, the new policy applies to Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan. The institute has about 30,000 members, some 5,000 of them overseas. The only members in embargoed countries are in Iran, said Robert S. Dickman, the institute's executive director. About 100 manuscripts, some of which had been peer reviewed and accepted, were pulled out of the publication process at the institute's eight journals following the board's decision, Mr. Dickman said....The controversy follows a decision by the U.S. Treasury Department to clarify its rules about scientific exchanges with authors in embargoed countries. The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, ruled last December that scientific exchanges with such authors were permitted. The ruling reversed a 2003 decision that had placed restrictions on communications with those authors. Mr. Dickman said the aerospace institute's Board of Directors had decided to ban exchanges because its conferences and publications often deal with applied engineering, "with the specific intention of improving the accuracy of a missile-delivery system, of the ability of an airplane to operate the delivery system for a weapon that something like North Korea could possess." But Mr. Hojabri said that many of the pulled papers dealt with basic scientific topics such as fluid dynamics. "They are, after all, a professional association and an academic association," he said of the institute. "They are not a security agency. It's an open conference."'
Update. Monastersky has a follow-up version of his article in the June 17 issue of the Chronicle.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/06/2005 02:27:00 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.
