re: DC Principles Coalition Issues Press Release

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

The first line in the DC Principles Coalition Issues Press 
Release states:  "A coalition of 75 nonprofit publishers opposes 
any legislation that would abruptly end a publishing system that 
has nurtured independent scientific inquiry for generations".

As an open access advocate who closely follows and participates 
in policy discussions, I am not aware of any proposed, suggested, 
or even contemplated legislation to end a publishing system, 
never mind abruptly.  This statement, as applied to open access 
mandate legislation, is either sincerely hysterical and 
misguided, or deliberately misleading.

The title of the statement, Nonprofit Publishers Oppose 
Government Mandates for Scientific Publishing, is misleading as 
well.

There are no proposed mandates for publishing that I am aware.  The
proposed mandates are for recipients of grant funding, not publishers.

Heather Morrison, M.L.I.S.
Editor, Theory / Research
Partnership:  the Canadian Journal of Library and Information
Practice and Research
http://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/