** Apologies for Cross-Posting: This important message is from Thomas
Walker, whose American Scientist article launched what eventually became the
American Scientist Open Access Forum in 1998 **

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Walker,Thomas J <tjw -- ufl.edu>
Date: Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Subject: DC Principless' petition
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@listserver.sigmaxi.org

This item appeared in a recent issue of the e-newsletter of one of the
scientific societies to which I belong. (XXX replaces the name of the
society.

Petition in Support of Society Publishers

XXX is a member of the Washington DC Principles Coalition for Free Access to
Science, which is a coalition of not-for-profit publishers that supports
providing free public access to published research findings in their
journals. The coalition is opposed to government mandated requirements of
when and where journal access must be provided, such as the current NIH
mandate to have all accepted NIH-funded manuscripts posted on PubMed
Central. There is a petition on the DC Principles Coalition website for
people to sign to express support for scientific society publishers. As we
move into 2009 and the new Congress, DC Principles member organizations want
to draw attention to the petition and to encourage their own society members
to sign on to it. At some point in time during the coming year, the
coalition will point to the number of people who support its mission. Please
take a minute to read this short petition and add your name in support of
XXX and the DC Principles coalition.

[The item links to the petition (
http://www.dcprinciples.org/DCPS_PETITION/DCPS_PETITION/Petition.aspx) in
its title and in its last sentence.]

I was dismayed at the item and am protesting these examples of deceit:

(1) "XXX is a member of the Washington DC Principles Coalition for Free
Access to Science...."

("Coalition" is not part of the organization's name.)

(2) "The coalition is opposed to government mandated requirements of when
and where journal access must be provided, such as the current NIH mandate
...."

(As indicated at the end of the same sentence, the NIH mandate pertains to
access to specific accepted manuscripts, not access to journals.)

(3) "Please take a minute to read this short petition and add your name in
support of XXX and the DC Principles coalition."

(The majority of the members of XXX, or of its governing board, would
probably not agree that advocating the repeal of the NIH mandate supports
XXX.)

I post this to inform the list of the petition and to ask if anyone knows of
similar examples of society members being asked to sign it.

====================================
Thomas J. Walker
Department of Entomology & Nematology
PO Box 110620 (or Natural Area Drive)
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620
E-mail: tjw@ufl.edu
FAX: (352)392-0190
Web: http://tjwalker.ifas.ufl.edu
====================================