Elsevier boycott: Time for librarians to rise up!

“A little while back the Cost of Knowledge site started up a boycott pledge list in response to mathematician Timothy Gowers' pledge to stop contributing to Elsevier's operations by ceasing writing, reviewing and editing for them. Here is the call to action: Academics have protested against Elsevier's business practices for years with little effect. These are some of their objections: [1] They charge exorbitantly high prices for subscriptions to individual journals. [2] In the light of these high prices, the only realistic option for many libraries is to agree to buy very large "bundles", which will include many journals that those libraries do not actually want. Elsevier thus makes huge profits by exploiting the fact that some of their journals are essential. [3] They support measures such as SOPA, PIPA and the Research Works Act, that aim to restrict the free exchange of information... It then asks signatories to sign the pledge with their name, affiliation and discipline and pledge not to publish, referee or do editorial work for Elsevier. I have done so. In fact, I've recently declined an opportunity to publish in an Elsevier professional newsletter in the library field and cited the Research Works Act in my refusal. I would ask all the librarians and library/information science people reading this to consider adding their names to the boycott as well. the organizers of The Cost of Knowledge have recently added Library and Information Sciences to the list of subjects. They've also set it up so that if you signed up previously, you can update your subject just by re-signing with the same email address. Librarians and other library/information science people can now directly support the boycott as it pertains to our own professional literature. By our participation, we can also clearly state that we support faculty, researcher and other scholars in their quest to make their professional and scholarly literature less the subject of excessive commercial avarice. Most importantly, we can send a message that we are united, that we stand together...”