[GOAL] Re: Where is Plan B?

[Peter Murray-Rust]

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 7:32 PM, Dana Roth <dzrlib at library.caltech.edu>wrote:

>  One would hope that knowledgeable contributors would please refrain from
> criticizing  ‘publishers’ as a group ... as though there were no
> differences in their policies towards academics.   ****
>
> ** **
>
> The stark contrast between the  policies of the American Physical Society,
> for example, and many  commercial publishers is so transparently obvious
> that I need say no more.****
>
>
> **
>
I agree that  there are a few publishers who do not fit into the broad
category I have suggested. This is true of all industries. There are
companies in the pharmaceutical industry that do not deserve the criticism
that many have for the major companies. But if we have to write "the
pharmaceutical industry excepting A, B, C" or "except those that don't do
X" discourse becomes impossible. It's a crude generalisation and polarizes
debate but it is necessary for those who feel the whole system is
completely flawed.

The RWA action was taken through the Association of American Publishers and
these account for a very significant  volume of published scholarly
articles. Actions are taken which are broadly seen as coming from the
industry rather than individual members. This has come up before with PRISM
where publishers collaborated to discredit the Open Access movement. .
There is then public criticism and a few members distance themselves, the
fuss dies down and the publishers remain with the association. This has
also happened with RWA. Members of the association are judged by the
actions of their communal organization.

There is no sign that the publishing industry per se - apart perhaps from
PLoS and a very few other small publishers is actively trying to change the
current model - most of the others use traditional subscription models and
are bound into the practice of the dominant model.





-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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