wonder if someone should connect him up with serious open access
supporters, specifically people who counter the people he's spoken with.
if he's talked to the american chemical society, that probably means cas
(chemical abstracts service). but there are open access advocates in the
acs' chemical information division, i'm sure. as for elsevier, they've
had scientists resign en masse from key publications (physics, biological
sciences) and start counter publications. if nature wants to even follow
the pretense of objectivity, shouldn't he be talking to these people too?
bq
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie Carr
Sent: Jan 24, 2007 12:14 PM
To:
AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access: excerpts from
article in Nature Magazine
Jennifer McLennan (ARL) points out the following article to
appear in Nature
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7126/full/445347a.html
Extracts below
=====
PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access
Jim Giles
Journal publishers lock horns with free-information movement.
The author of Nail 'Em! Confronting High-Profile Attacks on
Celebrities and Businesses is not the kind of figure normally
associated with the relatively sedate world of scientific
publishing. Besides writing the odd novel, Eric Dezenhall has made
a name for himself helping companies and celebrities protect their
reputations, working for example with Jeffrey Skilling, the former
Enron chief now serving a 24-year jail term for fraud.
...
Now, Nature has learned, a group of big scientific publishers has
hired the pit bull to take on the free-information movement, which
campaigns for scientific results to be made freely available. Some
traditional journals, which depend on subscription charges, say
that open-access journals and public databases of scientific papers
such as the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) PubMed Central,
threaten their livelihoods.
From e-mails passed to Nature, it seems Dezenhall spoke to
employees from Elsevier, Wiley and the American Chemical Society at
a meeting arranged last July by the Association of American
Publishers (AAP). A follow-up message in which Dezenhall suggests a
strategy for the publishers provides some insight into the approach
they are considering taking.
The consultant advised them to focus on simple messages, such as
"Public access equals government censorship". He hinted that the
publishers should attempt to equate traditional publishing models
with peer review, and "paint a picture of what the world would look
like without peer-reviewed articles".
...
Dezenhall noted that if the other side is on the defensive, it
doesn't matter if they can discredit your statements, she added:
"Media massaging is not the same as intellectual debate.
----
Les Carr
barbara quint
editor, searcher magazine
932 11th st., suite 9
santa monica, ca 90403
310/451-0252
bquint_at_mindspring.com
bquint_at_infotoday.com
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher
Received on Wed Jan 24 2007 - 21:47:34 GMT