Science Publishers Face Backlash from PR Foray

-- Library Journal, 02/06/2007

Apparently feeling pressure from proposals demanding free public access to federally-funded research, a group of science publishers have consulted with a high profile public relations consultant. According to a report in the journal Nature, "employees from Elsevier, Wiley and the American Chemical Society," attended a meeting arranged last year by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) at which Eric Dezenhall, described as a PR "pit bull," attempted to help publishers craft a campaign to fight calls for public access. Citing emails, Nature reported that Dezenhall advised publishers to focus on "simple" and sometimes misleading messages, such as "public access equals government censorship" and suggested publishers join forces with "groups that may be ideologically opposed to government-mandated projects."

But the foray into a possible PR effort now appears to be generating negative publicity. The publishers were blistered by critics in a range of articles including Scientific American, the Washington Post, and Salon, where Andrew Leonard blogged, under the headline "Science Publishers Get Stupid," that "any publisher of scientific research who even begins to entertain the notion that free access to scientific information can or should be equated with government censorship should be mocked mercilessly...for their disingenuous mendacity."