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> From the issue dated July 20, 2001
Congress Acts to Shut Down Government Web Site Used for
Journals Research
A Web site operated by the U.S. Energy Department that allows
scientists to search journals for citations and abstracts in
the physical sciences is in jeopardy because of a bill
approved last month by the House of Representatives. The bill
is accompanied by a report that recommends eliminating the
service.
The service, PubScience, allows researchers to examine more
than 1,000 peer-reviewed journals free and at the same time,
instead of searching multiple Web sites, publications, and
references (
http://pubsci.osti.gov).
PubScience is the Energy Department's most popular Web portal,
receiving millions of search requests a year, said Walter
Warnick, director of the department's Office of Scientific and
Technical Information. The department spends about a
half-million dollars a year to operate it.
However, a report accompanying the Energy Department's 2002
appropriations bill, H.R. 2311, asks the department "to
carefully review its information services such as PubScience
to be sure that such efforts remain focused on appropriate
scientific journals."
A House aide said that the service also competes with private
companies that index scientific journals.
The report, which was written by the House Appropriations
Committee, mirrors his remark.
The Energy Department is not legally required to abide by the
report. But the cautionary language combined with steep budget
cuts for the department's technical-management program make
eliminating the service a foregone conclusion if the bill is
signed into law, an Energy Department official said.
The Senate is expected to approve a comparable spending bill
for the Department of Energy, but it is unclear whether its
legislation will include similar language on PubScience.
The PubScience text was inserted in the House report after
lobbying by the Software & Information Industry Association on
behalf of member companies, including Chemical Abstracts
Services, Reed Elsevier, and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts,
according to the association.
"The Department of Energy has entered into the role of
secondary publishers," said David LeDuc, a lobbyist for the
software association. "There's existing private-sector
services. We would like to have the public sector stop
competing with these services."
But Stephen Miles Sacks, editor and publisher of Scipolicy --
The Journal of Science and Health Policy, said PubScience is
the only Web service that compiles abstracts from about 19
small, niche scientific publications, including his.
He called the House action "irresponsible and damaging to the
advancement of science and medicine."
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Copyright 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Received on Wed Jan 03 2001 - 19:17:43 GMT