This week's Bad Science column in the Guardian, whose author, Ben Goldacre, will be speaking at the Brighton Science Festival, discussed open access, in particular the news that some publishers, he doesn't say which, have hired Eric Dezenhall, the "pitbull of PR". I had not heard of Mr Dezenhall before I read the article. I look forward to Dezenhall's interventions in the open access debate. Neither did I know that Reed Elsevier include among their money making activities organising the DSEI arms fair.
I don't endorse the view that arms-dealing is abnormal. From a capitalist point of view, it is as reasonable to profit from of the labour of workers who make tanks and armoured cars as from those who create scientific research. But it does sit ill with publisher's rhetorical claims to be impartial and altruistic handmaidens of scientific communication.
Ben's blog is well worth a visit, not least for the sixteen (at the time of writing) posts tagged with the word "onanism".
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