CONTENTS
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS, TAX ISSUES
- Senate Passes FY16 Military Construction-Veterans Appropriations Bill
OTHER
- AAU Issues Statement on Lingua-Elsevier Dispute and Future of Scholarly Publishing
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS, TAX ISSUES
SENATE PASSES FY16 MILITARY CONSTRUCTION-VETERANS APPROPRIATIONS BILL
The Senate on November 10 approved the FY16 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill (H.R. 2029). The measure is the first stand-alone appropriations bill approved by the Senate in four years. The measure, which won unanimous support, could become the legislative vehicle for the end-of-session funding package later this year.
OTHER
AAU ISSUES STATEMENT ON LINGUA-ELSEVIER DISPUTE AND FUTURE OF SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING
Following the recent resignation of the editors and editorial board members of the Elsevier journal, Lingua, AAU President Hunter Rawlings on November 12 issued a statement on the future of scholarly open access publishing. The statement takes no position on the Lingua-Elsevier dispute but expresses support for the Lingua editors’ goal of establishing an affordable, sustainable, high-quality open access journal. The statement notes that the dispute highlights the complexities and conflicting interests in scholarly publishing.
The statement encourages universities, libraries, publishers, and others to work toward a “consensus on publishing principles, policies, and sustainable business models that strengthen scholarly communication and the public purposes it serves.”
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), in conjunction with six other associations, issued a related statement on the issue; the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities also released a statement. The six associations joining the ARL statement were the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the American Council on Education, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, the Confederation of Open Access Repositories, EDUCAUSE, and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.