Some initial thoughts on the Brussels Declaration on STM publishing

From: J.F.B.Rowland <J.F.Rowland_at_LBORO.AC.UK>
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:30:04 -0000

    [ The following text is in the "Windows-1252" character set. ]
    [ Your display is set for the "iso-8859-1" character set. ]
    [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ]

Quote from the Brussels Declaration:

'We support academic freedom: authors should be free to
 choose where they publish in a healthy, undistorted free market'

I was tempted (but lacked the courage) to say at the Brussels meeting
something along these lines:

'I am delighted to learn of the is draamatic change of policy from the major
scholarly pulishers, who propose for the first time to establish a healthy,
undistorted free market, replacing the current oligopoly. Noting that
Elseveir, Wiley, Blackwell, Springer and Taylor & Francis are all among the
signatories, may we now assume that: (1) the planned merger between Wiley
and Blackwell will not now take place; (2) that Springer and Kluwer will
demerge; (3) that Academic Press and Pergamon Press will regain their
independence from Elsevier; (4) and that Taylor & Francis will abandon its
relentless policy of buying up smaller publishers.'

Fytton Rowland, Loughborough University.
Received on Mon Feb 19 2007 - 11:04:13 GMT