Scientific publishers divided over US trade embargo ruling

Abstract

A fresh interpretation of the rules governing trade between the US and countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and Sudan has shocked American publishing houses as well as scientists and editors worldwide. The ruling, confirmed by the US Department of the Treasury at a meeting attended by representatives from 30 publishers on 9 February 2004, says that it is illegal for scientific journals to continue peer reviewing and editing manuscripts whose authors come from Cuba, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Sudan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, or Iraq--all countries against which the US applies full trade sanctions. The Association of American Publishers, which represents American publishers and has offices in New York and Washington, says it believes the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which issued the ruling last September, has interpreted the law incorrectly. The Association of American Publishers is discussing whether to challenge the ruling in the courts. Allan Adler, Vice President for Legal and Government Affairs at the association, said: If the rulings, and more particularly the regulations, were upheld in a judicial challenge, it would be a significant blow to press freedom in the US. Arash Etemadi, Managing Editor of the Iranian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, said: This ruling will affect the free exchange of information in the scientific world. The governments of all countries should respect free exchange of scientific information, particularly in the case of medical publications, which deal with the life and well-being of the Etemadi said he knew of colleagues who had held back submitting papers for consideration by American journals because of the ruling. The ruling has received a divided response from the American scientific publishing community. Some publishers, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the respected journal Science, have decided to continue considering manuscripts from the countries concerned regardless. Others, such as the journals of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), have stopped accepting such papers--a move which has infuriated its members who make up the majority of the 5100 signatures on a petition calling for the organization to cease discrimination against IEEE members from countries that are embargoed by the US Government. In October 2003, IEEE asked the US Government to grant them a licence authorizing them to edit manuscripts from embargoed countries but it is still waiting for a reply. Decisions to edit and publish should not be determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside the journal itself, said the World Association of Medical Editors, in a policy statement issued on 23 March 2004 (http://www. …