The Association of American Publishers' campaign against open access has angered one member of an AAP division so much that he has resigned, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

James D. Jordan, president and director of Columbia University Press, told The Chronicle yesterday that he had resigned from the Executive Council of the AAP's Professional and Scholarly Publishing division last month.

In an August release from the AAP, the purpose of the anti-open access campaign (Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine, or Prism) is to protect the integrity of scientific publishing from the interference of the Federal government. According to the release, open access "would jeopardize the financial viability of the journals that conduct peer review, placing the entire scholarly communication process at risk."

"I resigned from the Executive Council ... because I had vocally opposed the launch of the Prism Web site and did not subscribe to arguments supporting it and opposing the NIH's public-access proposals Jordan told The Chronicle in an Email.

Stephen Bourne, chief executive officer of Cambridge University Press, also criticized Prism in an Email message to The Chronicle. "Prism's message is oversimplistic and ill-judged, with the unwelcome consequence of creating tension between the publishing community and the proponents of open access."