UC to Nature Publishing Group: DROP DEAD
Wed 9 Jun 2010, 10:10 am
Just as a financial analyst is suggesting that the global recession may lead to big problems for Elsevier as libraries can no longer weather the high cost of the Big Deal and are forced to cut back, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has seen fit to hike subscription prices 400% (sic) on the University of California system’s subscription to 67 NPG journals. And we all know what California’s financial picture is like these days.
Please read the response from UC’s California Digital Library (PDF link), which suggests not only that the libraries for the entire UC system should no longer have online subscriptions to NPG journals, but that UC faculty should decline to have anything to do with NPG journals going forward. That means submitting no papers, doing no peer review, resigning from editorial boards, and talking to others outside UC in their disciplines about what they are doing and why.
I love this. I would like nothing better than to see commercial STM publishing collapse under its own greed and hubris. It’s probably too much to hope for, but a guy can dream.
Interestingly, the Nature newsblog is covering the controversy with a reasonably neutral tone.
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- File under: Academe and Education
- Comments? 3
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On behalf of Nature Publishing Group:
We understand that the letter from University of California and California Digital Library has raised concerns. However, we believe that the situation was not described fairly by CDL.
We have now issued a public statement on this matter, where we have fully described our understanding and position. You can find our statement here: http://www.nature.com/press_releases/cdl.html
Nature Publishing Group will be doing all we can to bring this to a successful conclusion as soon as possible.
Grace Baynes
Nature Publishing Group
Comment by Rachel Scheer — June 11, 2010 @ 2:33 pm
Thanks for commenting Grace/Rachel.
As you can imagine, I’m not very sympathetic to NPG’s statement. I think it is designed to spread fear, intimidation, and doubt among librarians and faculty. The CDL’s response (PDF link) to NPG’s statement is much closer to how I see things.
Comment by Steve — June 11, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
[...] time it was Nature Publishing. I can at least kind of understand that, since they are a commercial publisher. ACS, if I’m [...]
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