U. S. Treasury Department Restricts Scientific Publishing
Ohanian Comment: On one level, the concerns of publishing papers in engineering journals doesn't concern most of us. On a deeper level, of course, no man, even if he's an engineer, is an island.
It's not a huge stretch to note certain parallels with reading research in this country: ostracize and eliminate those not marching in the party line.
Engineers say that a letter issued on Wednesday by the U.S. Treasury Department may impede the free exchange of scientific information. The department said that the world's largest engineering association must apply for a special license to edit papers submitted for publication by researchers in countries under a trade embargo.
The association, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, has more than 350,000 members, of whom 2,000 live in five countries under a U.S. trade embargo: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan.
Since early 2001, the institute, better known as the IEEE, has reduced the benefits received by those 2,000 engineers, around 1,700 of whom live in Iran. Fearing that it would otherwise violate U.S. trade regulations, the IEEE decided to prevent those engineers from viewing its journals online, from using their IEEE-issued e-mail addresses, and from displaying the IEEE logo to promote events such as conferences.
The institute also stopped allowing the editing of research papers written by members in the embargoed countries.
"There's a major set of laws regarding services that you can't provide to people who reside in certain countries," said Michael S. Adler, president of the IEEE. In consultation with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the IEEE's lawyers decided that, under trade regulations, editing would be considered a service.
Under the IEEE policy, however, if a journal submission required no editing and could be published as is, it could still appear in the institute's journals. A paper by a researcher living in Iran, for example, appeared in the August issue of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
Of seven other scientific and engineering societies contacted by The Chronicle, six had instituted no restrictions before the Treasury Department's decision. An exception was the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which has stopped granting membership to researchers in Cuba and Sudan. It has placed no restrictions, however, on publishing.
Irving A. Lerch, director of international affairs for the American Physical Society, said that his organization had even consulted with the Treasury Department to ensure that it was not violating the law. "Editing does not add content," he said. "Editing is only a process whereby communication is facilitated."
The IEEE's Mr. Adler said that he agrees editing is not a service, but that Treasury Department officials told his group that "they regard that as a service, very clearly as a service." Nonetheless, the IEEE sent a letter in December to the Treasury Department arguing that it should allow editing under current regulations, or at least issue the institute a license to edit research papers.
The Treasury Department's response on Wednesday, in a letter to the IEEE, affirmed its position that editing scholarly papers provides a service to authors. "U.S. persons may not provide the Iranian author substantive or artistic alterations or enhancement of the manuscript, and IEEE may not facilitate the provision of such alterations or enhancements," wrote R. Richard Newcomb, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Trade policy prohibits "the reordering of paragraphs or sentences, correction of syntax, grammar, and replacement of inappropriate words by U.S. persons," according to the letter. The institute may apply for a license to edit papers, Mr. Newcomb wrote.
In a prepared statement, the IEEE said that it would apply for such a license immediately and resume editing papers as soon as the license was granted. "We are encouraged by this decision," said Mr. Adler.
Before the department issued the letter, the IEEE had come under harsh criticism for its policies. "It's a breach of trust," said Kenneth R. Foster, a professor of bioengineering, an IEEE member, and one of the most outspoken critics of the IEEE's treatment of Iranian engineers. "My principal concern was their very bad treatment of their own members."
But now Mr. Foster worries about the chilling effect the Treasury Department's decision may have on scientific publishing, particularly if applying for a license is an onerous task. "What [the letter] describes as needing a license," he said, "is exactly what every journal in the world does."
— Lila Guterman
U.S. Policy Restricts Scientific Publishing by Researchers in Countries Under Trade Embargo
Chronicle of Higher Education
2003-10-02
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2003/10/2003100201n.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
