[GOAL] Re: Revealing Dialogue on "CHORUS" with David Wojick, OSTI Consultant

[Heather Morrison]

Questions of interest / background are highly relevant in this debate, and
it is a good thing that Harnad has brought this up. It is extremely
difficult at best to have a purely academic discussion about a topic where
everyone involved has either strong feelings (e.g. pro or anti open access
or certain forms of open access), or economic interests (e.g. publishers
whose business models may be impacted by policy). In this situation the
best thing to do is to declare one's interests. Mine are those of a
researcher, librarian, and professor at a library school. I care deeply
about sharing of knowledge with everyone in the world, the public
interest, advancing research and scholarship, and I also care about jobs
for my colleagues and students.

In the political sphere, questions of interest are critical and often lead
to conflict of interest situations. Someone who has ties to the coal
industry has no business advising government on energy or environmental
policy. Someone who has ties to the publishing industry has no business
advising government on policies that impact scholarly communication, such
as open access. Politicians and government staff need to be wary of the
potential for such conflicts (which have been known to cause scandals and
even the downfall of political parties), and actively seek to avoid them
or mitigate their impact. Examples of steps that could be taken would
include assigning Wojick to projects that do not involve any of the
industries with which he has or has had ties.

The industry has every right to present their own interests, but they do
have an ethical obligation to present their own interests AS their own
interests.

best,

Heather Morrison


> Your position is indefensible, Professor Harnad.  Ad hominem arguments
> have
> no place in this discussion.
>
> Joe Esposito
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Stevan Harnad <amsciforum at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Joseph Esposito
>> <espositoj at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>> I don't know Wojick personally, but I must say that this sounds like an
>> ad
>>> hominem attack.  I have no idea what "a publishing interest lobbyist"
>>> is or
>>> whether Wojick belongs to that tribe, but even lobbyists should be
>>> engaged
>>> on the level of ideas.
>>>
>>
>> 1. I don't know Wojick personally either.
>>
>>
>> 2. There is a profound conflict of interest between the publishing
>> industry and the research community insofar as OA is concerned.
>>
>>
>> 3. Hence interests are most definitely relevant.
>>
>>
>> 4. As I said in the exchanges I posted, Wojick sounds (to me) very much
>> like a publishing interest lobbyist, but readers will have to judge for
>> themselves.
>>
>>
>> 5. It came as a surprise to me to find (after the exchange) that the
>> Center
>> for Media and Democracy
>> Sourcewatch<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_E._Wojick>indicates
>> that Wojick is listed
>> among the "Allied Experts" of the energy industry lobbyists-controlled
>> Natural
>> Resources Stewardship
>> Project<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Natural_Resources_Stewardship_Project>,
>> with the implication that he might have been a coal industry lobbyist.
>>
>>
>> 6. But I agree completely with Joseph Esposito that this exchange can
>> and
>> should be evaluated "on the level of the ideas." (Did you read any
>> further
>> than the paragraph introducing Wojick, Joseph?)
>>
>>
>> Stevan Harnad
>>
>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Stevan Harnad
>>> <amsciforum at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>>  David Wojick <http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/about/> works part
>>>> time as the Senior Consultant for Innovation at
>>>> OSTI<http://www.osti.gov/home/>,
>>>> the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, in the Office of
>>>> Science of the US Department of Energy. He has a PhD in logic and
>>>> philosophy of science, an MA in mathematical logic, and a BS in civil
>>>> engineering. In the exchanges below, he sounds [to me] very much like
>>>> a
>>>> publishing interest lobbyist, but judge for yourself. He also turns
>>>> out to
>>>> have a rather curious [and to me surprising] history in environmental
>>>> matters
>>>> <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_E._Wojick>…
>>>>
>>>> Dialogue archived at:
>>>> http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1027-.html
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Joseph J. Esposito
>>> Processed Media
>>> espositoj at gmail.com
>>> @josephjesposito
>>> +Joseph Esposito
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Joseph J. Esposito
> Processed Media
> espositoj at gmail.com
> @josephjesposito
> +Joseph Esposito
> _______________________________________________
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> GOAL at eprints.org
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>


-- 
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa
http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca