Chronicle Online Chat: US Trade Restrictions and Academic Publishing

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:21:41 EDT
From: michael.solomon@chronicle.com
To: aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu, ann.okerson@yale.edu
Subject: live chat on The Chronicle's Web site

I thought the following information on a live chat on The Chronicle of
Higher Education's Web site would be of interest to your listserv members
-- please consider posting to your list.  Thanks.

This week's edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at how new
U.S. trade restrictions are raising fears about new threats to academic
publishing.

Join a live, online discussion with Kenneth R. Foster, a professor of
bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, on whether a new
Treasury Department policy will impede the flow of scientific information
and impinge on academic freedom, on Wednesday, October 15, at 11 a.m.,
U.S. Eastern time.

To read the story, go to http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i08/08a01701.htm 
..  To sumbit questions in advance of the chat, or to follow the chat 
live on Wednesday, go to: 
http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2003/10/restrict/

More on the issue:

For nearly two years, the world's largest engineering association has
placed restrictions on members who live in countries under a U.S. trade
embargo, virtually rescinding those engineers' ability to publish research
papers in the group's journals. Members have criticized the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, but it has said that U.S. trade
regulations make it illegal to edit papers from engineers in those
countries. Early this month, word came from the U.S. Treasury Department's
Office of Foreign Assets Control that the IEEE was right: A special
license is required to edit papers submitted by researchers in embargoed
countries.

While the IEEE looks forward to resuming editing once it is granted a
license, questions remain about how the embargo will affect scientific
publishing more broadly. Is it correct to consider the process of academic
publishing a form of trade subject to regulation? Will the Treasury
Department's policies impede the flow of scientific information and
impinge on academic freedom? Does the IEEE shoulder some of the blame for
the Treasury Department's decisions, since it asked the department for a
clarification of the trade regulations?

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks.

-- Michael Solomon
The Chronicle of Higher Education
michael.solomon@chronicle.com