Over the summer several dozen academics from leading colleges and universities came out in support of Senate legislation to require journal articles reporting taxpayer-financed research to be made freely available within six months of publication. Now a number of academics are lining up to oppose to bill as well.

The bill, S 2695, is sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican, and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democrat. It has drawn a lot of attention in the open-access debate, even though the legislation is unlikely to be acted on before this session of Congress adjourns (The Chronicle, September 22).

The new critics of the legislation say the bill would broaden access to research but only at the price of the continued viability of scholarly societies that rely on revenue from their journals. In a letter the critics, styling themselves as the DC Principles Coalition, also say that the legislation might prompt a shift to an author-pays model of scholarly publication that could divert federal grant away from research.