Academics call for boycott of Elsevier | The Bookseller

“Academics have called for a boycott of publisher Elsevier... Over 2,000 academics and researchers thus far have signed a petition supporting a boycott, on www.thecostofknowledge.com, on the grounds that the publisher charges ‘exorbitantly high prices’ for journals, and adopts the practice of selling journals in bundles, so ‘libraries must buy a large set with many unwanted journals, or none at all’... The petition also protests against Elsevier's support of measures such as the Research Works Act that ‘aim to restrict the free exchange of information...’ Tim Worstall, a fellow at London's Adam Smith Institute, writing in a blog on Forbes.com... said the petition, and further blogs on the topic, will ‘lead to some fairly major changes in the way that Elsevier is able to run its journal publishing division. At least, I rather hope so, for the entire cost base and financial structure is outmoded in this internet age’... British mathematician Tim Gowers has stated his plan to boycott the publisher... Gowers argued: “We [academics] have much greater bargaining power than we are wielding at the moment, for the very simple reason that we don’t actually need their service... In a statement, Elsevier said the facts on which the petition was based were not correct. ‘Access to published content is greater and at its lowest cost per use than ever. The reality is that (1) our price increases have actually been among the industry’s lowest for the past ten years, (2) the introduction of optional packages have added enormous access at fractions of the list prices; and (3) Elsevier was the first and largest contributor to the NIH (Pubmed central). We look forward to working further with our communities to advance scientific knowledge together, and we believe this is best achieved without government mandates.’ The statement went on: “We respect the freedom of authors to make their own decisions. We hope the ones who sign the boycott reconsider their position however, and we are keen to engage to discuss their concerns...’”