ITHAKA Issues Public Statement Rejecting Research Works Act Legislation

UPDATE 6: Nature Publishing Group Statement, “NPG and Digital Science Do Not Support the Research Works Act”

UPDATE 5: Cambridge University Press expands on its position

UPDATE 4: University of California Press and Rockefeller U. Press Join List of AAP Members Not Supporting RWA
UPDATE 3: Richard Poynder is Also Posting How Other Publishers/AAP Members Are Responding to Questions About the RWA. Comments from Elsevier, CrossRef, Cambridge U. Press, Getty Publications

UPDATE 2: Add Penn. St. University Press to the list of AAP members saying NO to the Research Works Act

UPDATE: A comment left on Poydner’s blog post says that CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources) is also opposed to the RWA and they are drafting a letter to withdraw from the Association of American Publishers.  CLIR also says they we’re unaware that they had continued their membership in the AAP.
Yesterday, we linked to Richard Poynder’s post with a comment from MIT Press publicly stating that the Research Works Act (RWA) is not reflective of its position or mission. MIT Press is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) who supports the legislation.
Today, Richard is back with news that ITHAKA has also spoken out against the RWA legislation and AAP’s position
In a blog post titled, “ITHAKA becomes the second AAP member to disavow the Research Works Act,” Poynder includes this statement from the organization:

“A core principle of our organisation is to provide the broadest possible access to scholarly works in ways that are sustainable and account for their long term preservation. We have no intention of endorsing RWA. We also have no intention of leaving the AAP. We do not agree with them on every issue, but we value our membership, as we do our participation in a number of library and scholarly associations.”

See Also: A Quick Note on the Membership of the American Association of Publishers and the Research Works Act
Will more of the organizations mentioned in this post from last Friday also comment?

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Elsevier, Libraries, News, Preservation, Publishing