Dr Robert Parker responds to inaccurate Research Fortnight article

Dear sir/madam

The headline and your report ("RSC keeps up pressure to block open access", 20 April) is worryingly inaccurate.

You write: "The Royal Society of Chemistry is lobbying MPs against supporting legislation that would accelerate the development of open access models of communicating research findings."  Whereas what I actually said was: "The RSC supports sustainable Open Access and we believe the Gold method is a more sustainable model whereas the Green method is expensive to maintain, unsustainable and threatens to destabilise successful and effective scientific communications."

Among the many priorities discussed with Cambridge MP Julian Huppert on Friday included talking about our support for Gold Open Access. Julian is one of the very few MPs who has published research in scientific journals and is also a strong supporter of Gold Open Access.

The RSC is not lobbying anyone to block Open Access, as you state.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Robert Parker
Chief Executive, the Royal Society of Chemistry