This just in: the Research Works Act is dead!
February 27, 2012
I just received this notification that Issa and Maloney have pulled the Research Works Act, presumably in response to Elsevier’s withdrawal of support. So far, what’s at that link is all I know — I’ve not found a more official source for the text of the statement. But it makes me happy that it includes language like:
As the costs of publishing continue to be driven down by new technology, we will continue to see a growth in open access publishers. This new and innovative model appears to be the wave of the future.
That represents a realism and progressiveness that I didn’t honestly expect to see from these quarters.
Update (a couple of hours later)
Looks like it’s fully official now: it’s in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
February 27, 2012 at 9:15 pm
1 down, ~500.000 to go!
:D
February 27, 2012 at 9:53 pm
[…] today were from: Cameron Neylon on Google+, Gavia Libraria, the library loon, the irrepressible Mike Taylor and Bjorn Brembs, and Michael Eisen, who exhorts people to pause briefly to celebrate the news […]
February 27, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Goodbye, and good riddance!
February 28, 2012 at 12:27 am
Ding dong!
February 28, 2012 at 1:12 am
[…] withdrawn their support of the Research Works Act; and a few hours to get used to the idea that the Act itself is now dead. I’ve had some time to think about what it all […]
February 28, 2012 at 1:29 am
Yippee!
February 29, 2012 at 8:07 am
[…] quick note to remind everyone that although the RWA is dead, that only brings us back to the status quo. At present, it’s still the case that the great […]
March 30, 2012 at 11:13 am
[…] Research Councils UK is the aggregate of the UK’s seven research councils, which makes it overall the most important and influential funding body for science in Britain. A few days ago, they released a draft of their new open access policy, and they are soliciting comments now. Comments can be from anyone — individuals or groups, British or overseas — like the recent OSTP Request For Information in the States which we have to assume was influential in the defeat of the RWA. […]
April 26, 2012 at 10:35 pm
[…] This one is surely a no-brainer. Elsevier’s support for the RWA, both financial and rhetorical, catalysed a level of fury among researchers that’s like nothing they’ve seen before. The Cost of Knowledge boycott, which has now surpassed ten thousand signatories and is going strong, is only the tip of the iceberg. Elsevier recognised that supporting the RWA was an appalling tactical misstep, and publicly withdrew their support, resulting shortly thereafter in the RWA’s unlamented death. […]
June 2, 2012 at 10:03 am
[…] of PLoS, the proliferation of other publishing experiments such as F1000 Research and PeerJ, the crushing defeat of the RWA, the progress of the FRPAA, the Cost of Knowledge boycott, the White House petition that is […]
January 8, 2013 at 7:14 am
Wizard of Oz movie.. i saw this feet there!
February 15, 2013 at 8:41 am
[…] managed to hire bipartisan sponsorship for their toxic–in more ways than one–and rapidly-killed Research Works Act, so it’s nicely symmetrical that politicians from both sides of the aisle […]