From: Greg Tananbaum <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 13:14:39 -0800 In reading through the precise language of the Research Works Act (found on govtrack.us at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-3699, and included below), I am particularly struck by how "private-sector research work" is defined. The bill states that "private-sector research work" means "an article intended to be published in a scholarly or scientific publication, or ANY VERSION OF SUCH AN ARTICLE… to which a commercial or nonprofit publisher has made or HAS ENTERED INTO AN ARRANGEMENT to make a value-added contribution, including peer review or editing [emphasis added]". This definition would obviously vitiate PubMed Central, which accepts either the final, published articles or peer-reviewed final manuscripts (postprints). However, would it also deter the networked dissemination of preprints, working papers, manuscript drafts, and other early versions of the scientific record? If and when a publisher enters into an arrangement to peer review that work, one could reasonably interpret the answer to this question as “yes”. The bill states that “No Federal agency may … engage in any policy, program, or other activity that causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work.” Does NASA’s support for the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Article Service constitute engaging in a restricted activity? What about Brookhaven National Laboratory’s financial contribution to arXiv? To the extent that these databases post materials that may be under review at commercial journals, or indeed, may have already been refereed and even rejected (per review constituting “a value-added contribution”) , the government’s support of these services could be deemed illegal. I would be curious to hear if others read the language this way. Best Regards, Greg Tananbaum Consulting Services at the Intersection of Technology, Content, & Academia (510) 295-7504 [log in to unmask] http://www.scholarnext.com RWA LANGUAGE: No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that -- (1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or (2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work. In this Act: (1) AUTHOR- The term ‘author’ means a person who writes a private-sector research work. Such term does not include an officer or employee of the United States Government acting in the regular course of his or her duties. (2) NETWORK DISSEMINATION- The term ‘network dissemination’ means distributing, making available, or otherwise offering or disseminating a private-sector research work through the Internet or by a closed, limited, or other digital or electronic network or arrangement. (3) PRIVATE-SECTOR RESEARCH WORK- The term ‘private-sector research work’ means an article intended to be published in a scholarly or scientific publication, or any version of such an article, that is not a work of the United States Government (as defined in section 101 of title 17, United States Code), describing or interpreting research funded in whole or in part by a Federal agency and to which a commercial or nonprofit publisher has made or has entered into an arrangement to make a value-added contribution, including peer review or editing. Such term does not include progress reports or raw data outputs routinely required to be created for and submitted directly to a funding agency in the course of research.