US publishers endorse international STM declaration

The Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) has endorsed the Brussels Declaration on STM Publishing.

The Brussels Declaration was issued last month by the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) to articulate key industry principles. It has so far been endorsed by 42 commercial and non-profit society publishers and by 10 publishing associations worldwide.

The declaration affirms that the mission of scholarly publishers is to maximise the dissemination and preservation of knowledge through economically self-sustaining business models.

The declaration takes no position for or against any particular business model. However, it cautions that the open deposit of accepted author manuscripts risks destabilising subscription revenues and undermining the integrity of the peer-reviewed literature. The signatories support the creation of rights-protected archives that preserve scholarship in perpetuity, and welcome innovative business models that promote economic sustainability, based on a sensible and evidenced-based approach to policymaking.