From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/7182 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Yetter Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: Gowers petition against Elsevier Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:53:45 -0600 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: David Yetter NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1084) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1327949367 32222 80.91.229.3 (30 Jan 2012 18:49:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:49:27 +0000 (UTC) To: Michael Barr , categories Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Mon Jan 30 19:49:25 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtpx.mta.ca ([138.73.1.4]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1RrwI6-0007oY-Ds for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:49:22 +0100 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:40145) by smtpx.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.77) (envelope-from ) id 1RrwHK-0003nk-Dz; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:48:34 -0400 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RrwHK-0006Dm-9z for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:48:34 -0400 In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:7182 Archived-At: Eventually generalizing the boycott to Springer might be necessary, but=20= tactically I think it would be a mistake at this point. =20 I am reminded of a story from the days of the "Old West" here in Kansas = in which the new Marshall (I think it was Wyatt Earp) set about bringing order to = the town (I think it was Abilene) by obliging the Texas cowboys who had = driven their cattle north to check their guns before entering a saloon. When = the sneered and declined, he picked the biggest, meanest, surliest of the=20 Texans, laid him out with one punch, and repeated his request. The = other cowboys complied. The scientific community needs to do the same -- bringing down, or = forcing reform at, the most egregiously abusive of publishers will oblige the = others to fix the problems, too. And, just like a punch to the jaw delivered = to one cowboy was more feasible than fighting the lot of them, it is more = feasible: young folk worried about "impact factors" because they don't yet have a job are left with more publication venues from which to chose while avoiding Elsevier. Best Thoughts, D. Yetter On 28 Jan 2012, at 13:56, Michael Barr wrote: > I would like to generalize this to include Springer and Bertelsmann > (which, I think, includes Springer now). I haven't had any dealings = with > any of them since about 1995. They are evil and the sooner we get rid = of > them the better. About a month ago, I asked Springer about permission = to > reprint something from about 1980 if I recall properly. Not even the > courtesy of a refusal. We are doing out bit with TAC, but why can't = the > mathematical community as a whole see the damage that is being done to = our > profession? >=20 > Michael >=20 [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]