ARL Joins 89 Institutions & Organizations in Letter Opposing Research Works Act (Feb. 24, '12)

“On December 16, 2011, the Research Works Act, HR 3699, was introduced in the US House of Representatives by the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Darrell Issa (R-CA), and by co-sponsor Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). The legislation would have rolled back the NIH Public Access Policy and blocked the development of similar policies at other federal agencies... ARL and others wrote letters to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voicing opposition to the Research Works Act: [1] ARL and 89 other institutions and organizations [PDF] (Feb. 24, 2012) [2] OpenTheGovernment.org and 30 additional organizations (Feb. 9, 2012) [3] Association of American Universities and Association of Public and Land-grant Universities [PDF] (Feb. 6, 2012) [4] ARL and 9 other library and advocacy organizations [PDF] (Jan. 24, 2012)... In response to this extensive opposition to the Research Works Act, and in response to the grassroots Cost of Knowledge boycott of the business practices of scholarly publishing giant Elsevier, Elsevier withdrew its support of the legislation on February 27, although they “continue to oppose government mandates in this area.” Also on February 27, the co-sponsors of the Research Works Act, Reps. Darrell Issa and Carolyn Maloney, stated that they would not take legislative action on the bill."