Agent Of L.I.B.R.A.R.Y.

TangognaT

January 24th, 2007 at 8:38 pm

Wacky Publisher Hijinks

in: Library

Open Access News pointed to this article from Nature about Elsevier, Wiley and the American Chemical Society getting advice from a public relations person to focus on messages like “Public access equals government censorship.” The whole thing made me think that the AAP and these various publishers are living in the same world as the one portrayed in the movie Thank You For Smoking.

5
  • 1

    “Public access equals government censorship.” Are they mental? Crikey. My library is very appreciative of all the free content we can get.

    Anne on January 25th, 2007
  • 2

    I thought that was a real Nick Naylor moment there.

    Anna on January 25th, 2007
  • 3

    I keep saying those guys are scumpuppies. Maybe now people start listening.

    Dorothea on January 25th, 2007
  • 4

    Scumpuppies is such a lovely word.

    Anna on January 25th, 2007
  • 5

    All the traditional publishers are scared out of their minds by Open Access. ACS is so scared of Google Scholar that they sued over the use of the word “Scholar” as they think it’s too close to their copyrighted index to the entire chemical literature, “Scifinder Scholar.” Having used both products, I think they’re right to fear that Gresham’s Law is at work. For 95% of what people need, the “free” Google product is Good Enough. The last 5% uses all that ACS can supply, but at an unbelievably high price. When will Scifinder Scholar go Open Access, supported by advertisement? That’s when ACS could start raking it in. But they’d never think that way.

    lgf on January 27th, 2007

 

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