Ethics Alarms | An ethics commentary blog on current events and issues. Ban Elsevier. Please take the pledge not to do business with Elsevier. 404 scientists have done it so far: • The cost of knowledge. You can separately say you 1) won’t publish with them, 2) won’t referee for them, and/or 3) won’t do editorial work for them. At least do number 2): how often can you do something good by doing less work? When a huge corporation relies so heavily on nasty monopolistic practices and unpaid volunteer labor, they leave themselves open to this.
This pledge website is the brainchild of Tim Gowers, a Fields medalist and prominent math blogger: • Tim Gowers, Elsevier: my part in its downfall and In case you’re not familiar with the Elsevier problem, here’s something excerpted from my website. The problem and the solutions The problem of highly priced science journals is well-known. Luckily, there are also two counter-trends at work. There are also a growing number of free journals. Unsurprisingly, the response from publishers was chilly. What we can do. The Cost of Knowledge. Mathematics. Elsevier — my part in its downfall « Gowers's Weblog. The Dutch publisher Elsevier publishes many of the world’s best known mathematics journals, including Advances in Mathematics, Comptes Rendus, Discrete Mathematics, The European Journal of Combinatorics, Historia Mathematica, Journal of Algebra, Journal of Approximation Theory, Journal of Combinatorics Series A, Journal of Functional Analysis, Journal of Geometry and Physics, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, Journal of Number Theory, Topology, and Topology and its Applications.
For many years, it has also been heavily criticized for its business practices. Let me briefly summarize these criticisms. 1. It charges very high prices — so far above the average that it seems quite extraordinary that they can get away with it. 2. 3. If libraries attempt to negotiate better deals, Elsevier is ruthless about cutting off access to all their journals. 4. I could carry on, but I’ll leave it there.
It might seem inexplicable that this situation has been allowed to continue. Like this: