RE: The Big Elsevier Boycottathon

[Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com>]

I'm not sure Elsevier is becoming _more_ unpopular, but that people are more 
eager to voice their dislike for Elsevier, which is certainly deserved. My main 
beef with them is that they attempt to meddle in American politics through a 
US-based front company that lobbies for policies that benefit their 
international publishing house. They are not an American company, and I find 
Maloney accepting money from them to support their policy terrible. But that's 
where my distaste ends. As a company, they have every right, I think, to be 
free from the restriction advocated by scientists who (some of whom having 
dealt with the company personally) have what amounts to a populist argument 
(elites vs plebs, Occupy Wall Street, etc.) that ignores some of the finer 
details. I feel the argument is focused on the antipathy toward "Big Corporate" 
(someone on Twitter called it "Big Publishing," evoking the populist 
disagreement with Big Oil, Big Tobacco, etc. -- which, to be fair, earn hatred 
for other reasons, not the least being their benefiting from what they do to 
the environment and health of their consumers). But, that's my argument.

Cheers,

  Jaime A. Headden
  The Bite Stuff (site v2)
  http://qilong.wordpress.com/

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a
different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race
has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or
his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion 
Backs)


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> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 10:57:53 +0000
> From: Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: The Big Elsevier Boycottathon
>
> Hi chaps,
>
> It seems that Elsevier is becoming less and less popular with
> scientists every day: almost 3000 scientists (including some
> palaeontologists) have now declared their intent to never publish in
> their journals via a petition online. Many have also vowed to never
> perform peer review or editorial work for them, either. Given that
> Elsevier publish a number of palaeo journals, this could have some
> impact on palaeo publications. Details at:
>
> http://thecostofknowledge.com/
>
> And a report from Science:
>
> http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/thousands-of-scientists-vow-to-b.html?ref=em
>
>
> Of course, there's lots of reading to be had in recent SV:POW! posts,
> too (see
> http://svpow.wordpress.com/category/stinkin-mammals/stinkin-publishers/).
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> --
>
> Dr. Mark Witton
> www.markwitton.com
> Lecturer
> Palaeobiology Research Group
> School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
> University of Portsmouth
> Burnaby Building
> Burnaby Road
> Portsmouth
> PO1 3QL
>
> Tel: (44)2392 842418
> E-mail: Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk
>
> If pterosaurs are your thing, be sure to pop by:
>
> - Pterosaur.Net: www.pterosaur.net
> - The Pterosaur.Net blog: http://pterosaur-net.blogspot.com/
> - My pterosaur artwork: www.flickr.com/photos/markwitton
>