STM responds to signing into law of America COMPETES Act Public Access Provisio

The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers applauded President Obama's signing of the America COMPETES Act and the new Interagency Public Access Committee created by the act. From the STM press release: "The [Interagency Public Access Committee] is charged with coordinating Federal agency policies concerning stewardship and dissemination of the results of research, including digital data and peer-reviewed scholarly publications, supported by funding from the Federal science agencies. Key provisions of the Committee’s charter call for it to identify specific objectives and public interests that need to be addressed by any policies considered and solicit input from, and collaborate with, non-Federal stakeholders such as publishers. The charter also directs the Committee to take into account key factors such as the economic impact of public access policies on science and engineering stakeholders, as well as the role that scientific publishers play in ensuring the integrity of the scientific record – including the investments and added value that they contribute. The Charter further recognizes the inherent differences among Federal science agencies and scientific disciplines. The Act also notes important areas of inquiry such as the distinctions between data and scholarly publications and practices and procedures with respect to research reports...."