BMJ 2004;328:543 (6 March),
doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7439.543-b
News US societies to defy ban on editing articles from embargoed countries Owen Dyer London
A group of American scientific societies is planning to defy a recent US government ruling that has
prevented their journals from publishing work by scientists from Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, and Sudan,
all countries subject to US trade embargoes.
Historically, US trade embargoes have regulated the transfer of goods but not of information, as law
makers believed that a free exchange of ideas would encourage democratic development in the targeted
countries. Trade legislation has normally specified journal articles and other written material as
exempt from regulation.
But last September the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers
trade embargoes, announced that any substantive changes made by American reviewers, translators, or
editors to manuscripts from the embargoed countries would constitute a service to the country and
would be permissible only with a special licence. Violators of the trade regulations can incur fines
as high as $500 000 (£268 000; E400 000) and jail sentences of up to 10 years.
The American Chemical Society, publisher of 30 journals in physical and organic chemistry, stopped
accepting articles from authors in embargoed countries last September but has now decided to return
to "business as usual." After taking legal advice, the society has concluded that if the government
prosecutes, it can mount a defence based on the first amendment to the US constitution, which
guarantees freedom of speech and the press.
According to the president of the society's publications division, Robert Bovenschulte, the society
has formed a task force with other, unnamed scientific publishers, which will consider legal action
"if other avenues of redress fail to overturn the OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] ruling."
"We reluctantly imposed a temporary moratorium in September," said Mr Bovenschulte, "but this was at
odds with our own ethical guidelines, which demand that we consider what to publish based upon its
scientific merit, and that alone. The advancement of science is a global activity, and this ruling
is frankly inimical to that."
Some publishers have applied for an Office of Foreign Assets Control licence to edit submitted
articles, whereas others, such as the Nature Publishing Group, have never stopped taking
manuscripts from embargoed countries. Most publishers now doubt that the government will prosecute
if they defy the ban.
Fredun Hojabri, a California based Iranian scientist, blames the Institute for Electrical and
Electronics Engineers for seeking legal clarification from the Office of Foreign Assets Control,
prompting officials to issue September's interpretative ruling.
"It all started two years ago when the IEEE [Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers] got
in trouble with OFAC for setting up a bank account to fund travel to a scientific conference in
Iran," he said. "It was they who asked OFAC for a ruling on this issue."
A legal opinion sought by the American Association of Publishers in January said the ban was a clear
case of prior restraint, and violated both the first amendment and the Berman amendment exempting
informational material from trade embargoes.
Pat Schroeder, the association's president, said: "This ruling is baffling. How does editing
manuscripts threaten the US? "