A group of physicists are reportedly going head-to-head with the American Physical Society (APS) as the publisher has banned them from posting parts of their work to the online encyclopaedia - Wikipedia, blogs and other forums.
According to media reports, the physicists were upset after the publisher withdrew its offer to publish two studies in Physical Review Letters because the authors had asked for a rights agreement compatible with Wikipedia. Scientists are required to transfer their copyright to the society before they can publish in an APS journal. This prevents scientists contributing illustrations or other derivative works of their papers to websites without permission.
The authors whose papers were withdrawn and 38 other physicists are calling for the APS to change its policy. Publishers such as the UK's Royal Society have already adopted copyright policies that allow online reproduction.
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