Editors
face prison terms for violating trade embargo
By
Sean Orfila
On-line Forty-Niner
U.S
publishers of academic and scientific journals
may face prison sentences and stiff fines
under a recent announcement from the Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The letter, addressed in response to a Los
Angeles Times inquiry, said that publishers
who edit manuscripts from Iran, Iraq, Sudan,
Libya and Cuba violate trade embargos.
It
is legal, under the ruling, to publish submissions
from rogue nations. However, editing is
considered a service, therefore U.S publishers
who edit submissions from the five embargoed
nations may be punished.
Some
journals are risking stiff punishments and
editing the manuscripts anyway. The Times
reported Saturday that Robert Bovenschulte,
president of the American Chemical Society's
publications division, challenged the government
by editing articles from each of the five
embargoed countries. Bovenschulte told the
Times that by not publishing the articles
he would be violating his publication's
ethical guidelines that weigh quality of
work, rather than the origin of the author,
as the basis for publication. The society
published more than 24,000 articles in its
scientific journals last year, 90 from Iranian
scholars.
"We
do not put any restrictions on the submission
or publication of papers based on economic
or other sanctions," said Monica Bradford,
executive editor for "Science"
magazine, "submissions are welcome
and all papers are judged on the basis of
their technical merit."
The
ruling surfaced among criticism from the
science community this week of the Bush
administration's policies toward science.
A statement issued Monday by more than 60
leading scientists and Nobel Prize laureates
called for legislative regulations on federal
policymaking.
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