Elsevier Boycott Not a Petition, But “A Declaration of Independence”

“So says computer programmer and sauropod fan  Mike Taylor in a particularly rich rallying cry at Discover’s “The Crux” blog. The ongoing boycott of academic-publishing giant Elsevier — almost 7000 researchers and counting — writes [Taylor], ‘[has] sometimes been described as a petition, but isn’t trying to persuade Elsevier to do something. It’s a declaration of independence.’ It’s a particularly sharp rundown of the forces in play in the growing open-science revolt, with due attention to both the changes that have created this revolt and to the changes still needed from researchers if it’s to succeed in making open-access publication of scientific results the norm instead of the exception... [Writes Taylor:] ‘At this point, it seems clear that the old publishers aren’t going to change; their support for the RWA is proof enough of this. To fix the academic publishing mess, researchers need to stop sending their work to barrier-based journals. And for that to happen, we need funding bodies and job-search committees to judge candidates on the quality of their work, not on which brand name it’s associated with. Happily, there are signs of movement in this direction...’ There’s a long way to go yet. But at this point, the pressure continues to grow on both Elsevier and hesitant researchers virtually by the day, and declarations of independence like the one voiced here by Taylor reveal the growing confidence of open-science advocates.”