ACM Letter to OSTP

January 9, 2020

Today, ACM President Cherri Pancake sent a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) stating that ACM regrets having signed with a coalition of 135 scientific publishers and organizations a letter to President Trump addressing a proposed zero-embargo mandate for results of federally funded research.

In her letter, President Pancake explains why ACM is so committed to transitioning to full Open Access publication and describes the significant progress that ACM has made in developing sustainable models for Open Access.

She states, “ACM, like many of our sister societies, is in the process of transitioning to a future where all peer-reviewed scholarly articles – not just those resulting from federal funding – will be immediately available to researchers and the public at no cost.”

President Pancake also lays out why it is critical to engage key stakeholders before updating the current embargo policy. She notes the difficulties an immediate zero-embargo policy for federally-funded research could create for the scientific publishing ecosystem. Instead, she encourages OSTP to engage with a broad array of stakeholders to collaboratively discuss models for publishing, curating, and archiving scientific results that will achieve complete openness in scientific research.

Read ACM’s letter to the OSTP.