Publishers scrap over open access

Medical Marketing and Media, Mar 2007 by Arnold, Matthew

AN EFFORT BY scientific and medical publishers to push back against the "open access" movement ignited a spat in the pages of Nature magazine.

Nature reported that at the behest of the Association of American Publishers, Elsevier, Wiley and American Chemical Society staff met with a Washington PR man to talk about defending their business against proponents of public access to scientific research.

The AAP called the article "misleading" for implying unsavory PR tactics on the part of publishers. AAP chair Brian D. Crawford said: "All this debate boils down to is some people wanting something for nothing."

-MA