06 July 2008

New salvos in the publishing wars

SalvoI've talked a little about open access research publishing here, so wanted to point out the recent sniping across no man's land on the subject. The opening salvo was fired by Nature. I haven't read the article, because it's password protected and I don't want to pay the 8 bucks, so you can guess where Nature stands on this issue. The tone of the article seems to have caught many off guard as quite nasty.

The Nature article does have reader comments below it, if you have some time. There's quite a few.

You can find a compilation of reactions to the Nature article at A Blog Around the Clock, which includes this pithy comment:

...PLoS has no intention to in any official way acknowledge the existence of this article (according to the old blogospheric rule "Do Not Feed The Trolls")(.)

There's also a lengthy post over at The Questionable Authority on the subject.

My only comment for now is to repeat the mantra that led me to start this website.

Ideas that spread, win.

Additional: Greg Laden has compiled things that Nature has published about PLoS over the years here.

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