The Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers (PSP) has welcomed the introduction of legislation to protect the rights of authors and publishers of copyrighted, peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.
At a recently held hearing on H.R. 6845, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property examined the implications of a government mandate that relies on a Federal agency's funding of scientific research. The mandate allows the agency to freely distribute copyrighted articles authored by the funding recipients for publication in scientific journals. This is despite the fact that such distribution competes with and undercuts the rights of journal publishers who acquire copyright in such articles from their authors after putting the manuscripts through significant quality assurance processes of peer review and determination of acceptability for publication.
The legislation was introduced in response to a recent government mandate requiring publishers to surrender their peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, without compensation, for worldwide online distribution by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within 12 months after publication. The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act would recognise the importance of the added value that journal publishers contribute to ensure the integrity of such articles as key components of the nation's public record on scientific research. The Act would also help keep the Federal Government from undermining copyright protection for journal articles where private-sector publishers have added such significant value.
