In an apparent concession to thousands of academics who have rallied against its “exorbitantly high pricing,” the scholarly publishing juggernaut Reed Elsevier on Monday withdrew its support of the Research Works Act, a bill that would have preempted the government from mandating public access to federally funded research published by commercial publishers… Elsevier’s concessions and the subsequent death of the Research Works Act are being hailed as a victory for the 7,500 academics who pledged to abstain from submitting or editing articles for the company as part of a boycott. Still, some of the boycott’s original supporters say they are not ready to lay down their arms. The company’s decision to stop lobbying for the Research Works Act was not a sign of shifting principles, they say, but an attempt to break a wave of bad press generated by the boycott by abandoning a piece of legislation that was not likely to go anywhere anyway.

Read full article [here].
by Steve Kolowich , Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: February 28th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.