Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Closed-Access Journals on the PR Offensive

I’ve talked in the past about the problem of access to journals. It varies drastically between institutions. Here at JHU, our access is pretty good. However, I’d say it was better, and certainly more convenient, at Washington University in St.Louis. But really, it shouldn’t matter what institution you’re affiliated with. Peer-reviewed research, and especially government funded peer-reviewed research, should be widely and freely available, from the internet, preferably in PDF format.

I’m not saying that anyone has to really give it away. Costs can be shifted around. However, for the sake of scientific review, collaboration, and progress, anyone should be able to access the papers. There’s already an extensive movement toward this standard. The Public Library of Science publishes several open-access journals, and carries out some advocacy of open-access publishing.

This, like the ability of bands to sell and promote their own music without the RIAA, is a threat to the traditional publishing industry. Nature recently published a brief article on the efforts of Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society to counteract open-access promotion with their own PR. They’ve hired an expert on the PR-offensive to advise them in this effort. His advice allegedly includes tidbits like this:

The consultant advised them to focus on simple messages, such as “Public access equals government censorship”. He hinted that the publishers should attempt to equate traditional publishing models with peer review, and “paint a picture of what the world would look like without peer-reviewed articles”.

Do you see what’s going on here? Simple, but bald-faced lies, repeated often. Peer review is not at all limited to “traditional publishing models.” PLoS is a great counterexample. Also, public access is not government censorship, especially if taxpayer dollars paid for the research. I’d call that getting what you pay for. The argument is that,

“When any government or funding agency houses and disseminates for public consumption only the work it itself funds, that constitutes a form of selection and self-promotion of that entity’s interests.”

I mean, read that. Should a funding agency pay to disseminate everyone else’s work? Clearly these guys have hired an expert on crafting statements that seem reasonable but are actually quite deceptive and misleading. Based on the quotes from the involved publishers, they’re already drinking the kool-aid, or doing a good job of pretending to do so.

This issue has been covered and extensively discussed on Slashdot.

Saturnalia: The real reason for the season.

Skepticlawyer over at Catallaxy (where I sometimes blog) has a nice little summary of the pagan origins of Christmas, before it was co-opted as the pretend birthday of Jesus. Here’s just a snippet:

Romans decorated their doorposts with holly and kissed under the mistletoe. Shops and businesses closed and people greeted one another in the street with shouts of Io Saturnalia! On one day of the twelve, masters waited on their slaves at table while, in the legions, officers served the ranks. A rose was hung from the ceiling in banqueting rooms, and anything said or done sub rosa went no further than the front door. That banqueting could get out of hand is attested to by Seneca, who tells of slaves detailed especially to clean up the spew. The government – in both Rome and the provinces – often laid on free public feasts. In the poem by Statius running through this piece, we’re told how the emperor Domitian held one such feast in the colosseum, somehow combining (and the organisation can only be marvelled at) vast quantities of food with entertainment. The Romans, I should add, had no weekend, no useless and unproductive Saturdays and Sundays, so they looked forward to their sanguinary feriae with considerable relish. The festival of Saturnalia was a time, too, for family dinners, for parties, for amours, for socialising, for wishing others well.

Surely this is something that several of my readers already have extensive knowledge about, but while I’d heard of it, it’s mostly new to me. Also, the Roman city in SecondLife, whose name I can’t at the moment recall, was celebrating Saturnalia last time I was there.

Obligatory Wikipedia entry link. Note that Wikipedia claims the link between Christmas and Saturnalia is tenuous, at least as far as the date goes. The traditions seem pretty clearly related to me.

Center for Inquiry – “We’re in big trouble!”

My title paraphrases, their message, but I think it’s a reasonable summary. Interesting tidbits:

the resilience of anti-evolution movements is supported not only by religious dogmatism but also by the abysmal public ignorance of basic scientific principles. Consider these facts:

  • A recent poll by the Pew Research Center revealed that 64% of Americans are open to the idea of teaching intelligent design or creationism in public schools.
  • Some 42% totally reject evolution or believe that present forms of life existed since the beginning of time.
  • 38% would teach only creationism instead of evolutionary theory.
  • Only 26% agree with the predominant scientific view that life evolved by processes of natural selection without the need for divine intervention.
  • The percentage of individuals who accept the theory of evolution is lower in the United States than in any other developed country, with the exception of Turkey.

Recent polls have illustrated other instances of scientific illiteracy:

  • 20% of Americans think that the Sun revolves about the Earth
  • Only 10% know what radiation is
  • Less than one-third can identify DNA as a key to heredity
  • In the U.S., twelfth grade students scored lower than the average of students in 21 other countries in science and math.

We think that these dismal facts portend a clear and present danger to the role of science in the U.S.

I’m inclined to agree. Sometimes I forget, because I’m surrounded by fantastically smart and well-educated scientists for most of my waking hours. Please, don’t forget the challenges we face. Don’t let this bullshit slide.

In a handbasket.

Apparently while I’ve been away, not just out of the country but also neglecting my blog reading, the US has somehow managed to become a dictatorship and legalize torture. As legal as it can be in light of certain international conventions and laws.

Surely I should say more about this, but honestly, I’ve been at work from 07.30 – 20.30 for the last two days. Jet lag has not helped in making that time productive. I’m hoping that if I keep the work up and the breaks down I may at some point catch up to where I should be, and be able to breathe a little.