Elsevier are not evil
March 26, 2012
My new piece is now up the LSE Impact Blog — in which I recognise that it’s a mistake to think of Elsevier and other for-profit barrier-based publishers as evil. The money quote:
Talk of such publishers being “evil” is really misplaced. They do what they do. It would be more accurate to call them “blind” or “unthinking”. When they fight tooth and nail to prevent open access, they are no more being evil than a shark is when it attacks its prey; no more evil than a brick wall across a motorway.
For the rest, read the article: Visibility is currency in academia but it is scarcity in publishing. The push for open access shows that academic publishers can’t serve two masters.
By the way, if you read it, do leave a comment; and if you like it, pass the link to your colleagues. It’s great to get discussion going on these pieces, bringing the issues to a new audience each time. (I realise that for SV-POW! readers, the core issues are now well rehearsed; but we need to remember that even now only a very small proportion of academics recognise the importance of open access.)
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
March 26, 2012 at 9:33 pm
“And what haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the [publishers], I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the [publishers]. And this blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food.” –Werner Herzog (slighlty modified)
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