US publishers welcome copyright protection

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has welcomed US legislation that aims to safeguard the rights of authors and publishers of copyrighted, peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. 

The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, HR 801, was re-introduced in response to a government mandate that allows the National Institutes of Health to make peer-reviewed journal articles freely available online within 12 months of publication.

'While the [US] government may fund the research, not-for-profit and commercial publishers together invest hundreds of millions of dollars each year conducting peer review, editing, publishing, disseminating, and archiving scientific and scholarly journal articles to inform the research community and the general public about the results of such research,' explained Allan Adler, AAP vice president for government and legal affairs. 'This legislation would enable the government to disseminate research funded by the government while ensuring copyright protection and preserving the incentives for the private-sector investments in the journal publishing community.'