The Chronicle of Higher Education will host an online colloquy on the question Wednesday, October 15, at 11 a.m. ET. For background, read the Chronicle'sopen-access article from the October 17 issue, following up its toll-access article (free online excerpts) from last week.
Here's how the Chronicle frames the question for next Wednesday's discussion: "For nearly two years, the world's largest engineering association has placed restrictions on members who live in countries under a U.S. trade embargo, virtually rescinding those engineers' ability to publish research papers in the group's journals. Members have criticized the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, but it has said that U.S. trade regulations make it illegal to edit papers from engineers in those countries. Early this month, word came from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control that the IEEE was right: A special license is required to edit papers submitted by researchers in embargoed countries. While the IEEE looks forward to resuming editing once it is granted a license, questions remain about how the embargo will affect scientific publishing more broadly. Is it correct to consider the process of academic publishing a form of trade subject to regulation? Will the Treasury Department's policies impede the flow of scientific information and impinge on academic freedom? Does the IEEE shoulder some of the blame for the Treasury Department's decisions, since it asked the department for a clarification of the trade regulations?"
The colloquy guest will be Kenneth R. Foster, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and IEEE member who has "sharply criticized" the IEEE for its treatment of members from embargoed nations.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/10/2003 05:47:00 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.
