RE: The Big Elsevier Boycottathon

[Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com>]

Tomorrow morning, midnight or so, I will have something up that will discuss 
several of these points directly. My argument thus doesn't extend beyond what I 
wrote for now. Note that in this discussion, I have advocated publicly already 
that one of the best forms of "selection" we as scientists can do is exactly 
what is being done with regards to the boycott: don't review, publish with, or 
edit for any Elsevier journal. Moreover, submit elsewhere, and support more 
open practices. It is nothing more substantial than a shift from publishing 
with them, and thus depriving them of income, to attempt to force a revision of 
their policies/prices/practices.

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)


________________________________
> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 16:55:32 +0000 
> From: elliottgw@btopenworld.com 
> Subject: Re: The Big Elsevier Boycottathon 
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu 
> CC: qi_leong@hotmail.com 
>  
> I think the argument revolves around the idea that they make a lot of  
> money off of charging people for stuff they don't do themselves. They  
> don't research, they don't review (in most cases that I've heard of,  
> they don't even pay for reviewing) and then they lock all their stuff  
> up behind paywalls. There's also an issue with them paywalling research  
> that's been publicly funded. With the advent of 'free' journals on the  
> web, I can see why people would get narked. 
>  
> Cheers 
>  
> Graeme Elliott 
> www.subjectenrichment.com<http://www.subjectenrichment.com> 
>  
>  
> From: Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com> 
> To: Mark Witton <mark.witton@port.ac.uk>;  
> Dinosaur.Mailing.List@listproc.usc.edu 
> Sent: Thursday, 2 February 2012, 15:56 
> Subject: RE: The Big Elsevier Boycottathon 
>  
>  
> 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) 
>  
>  
> ---------------------------------------- 
>  > Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 10:57:53 +0000 
>  > From: Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk<mailto:Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk> 
>  > To: dinosaur@usc.edu<mailto: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<mailto: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 
>  > 
>  
>  
>