[BOAI] STM Publishers welcome Spanish Science Law

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from STM.  --Peter Suber.]


PRESS RELEASE FROM STM
19 May 2011

STM Publishers welcome Spanish Science Law

The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
(STM) today welcomed the balanced legislation in the new Spanish Science
Law.

'STM applauds the efforts of Spanish government to improve Spanish science
with this new law, and in particular the respect for intellectual property
rights articulated in Article 37,' said Michael Mabe, CEO of  the
International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers.

The Plenary of the House of Representatives adopted the Law on Science,
Technology and Innovation by 289 votes in favor, 3 against and no
abstentions. The bill updates the 1986 law, Spain's first scientific
legislation after becoming a democracy.

Article 37 of the wide-ranging bill includes encouragement for the
development of open access repositories. It also mandates deposit of
research outputs funded by the General Budget of the State in publicly
accessible repositories within twelve months of publication. This applies to
the authors accepted version of the manuscript, and the bill requires third
party agreements such as copyright transfer to be respected.

'The new law will allow authors to continue to have freedom to publish in
journals of their choice and therefore supports the international visibility
of Spanish science,' continued Mabe.

While the bill was being debated, STM asked the Spanish Government, Ministry
for Science and Innovation to consider more flexibility in terms of embargo
periods for public access. Not every discipline or sub-discipline has the
same attitude to material being available before final publication, nor does
every discipline have the same pattern of access to scientific articles.

STM calls on the Spanish government to make funds available to
government-funded researchers for open access publication.  Publishers are
committed to the wide dissemination and unrestricted access to content they
publish, on the understanding that services that publishers provide must be
paid for in some way. Unfunded mandates for self-archiving have the
potential to undermine the sustainability of STM publishing with negative
impacts on scholarly communication.

-       ENDS -

STM is the leading global trade association for academic and professional
publishers. It has over 110 members in 21 countries who each year
collectively publish nearly 66% of all journal articles and tens of
thousands of monographs and reference works. STM members include learned
societies, university presses, private companies, new starts and established
players. For more information, visit: http://www.stm-assoc.org.

Contact: Kim Beadle, STM, mailto:beadle at stm-assoc.org or phone +44 1865
339321

Following a meeting of its publishing Heads of House and ratification of its
outcomes by the STM Board, STM has adopted the following policy statements
on access.

STM on access
-       Publishers are committed to wide dissemination and unrestricted
access to their content; the services that publishers provide must be paid
for in some way.
-       STM supports any and all models of access that are sustainable, and
that ensure the integrity and permanence of the scholarly record on which
progress is built.
-       STM does not support unfunded mandates that constrain scholarly
authors or affect the sustainability of the publishing enterprise.
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