Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Calling for a Boycott of of AAP - Association of American Publishers

If you have not seen the wonderful news about the latest anti Open Access initiative called PRISM, well you should surf around the blogosphere a bit. PRISM is a group started by the AAP - the Association of American Publishers that - there is no nice way to put this - is a sad stage in the evolution of publishing. Basically, it is a Macarthy-Era ripoff where Open Access is the new evil that communism once was. And everything wrong with the world is in essence blamed on the Open Access movement. For more detail on PRISM, and what is wrong with it, including the pirates use of copyrighted material, see some of these links:

I think academics and the public need to fight back against this attempt to mislead the public about the issues surrounding Open Access publishing. And one way to fight back is to recommend that the members of AAP drop out or request termination of the PRISM effort. So here is a list (see below for the full list) with links of the members of AAP. If you are involved or have connections to any of these groups, consider writing or calling them and suggesting they reconsider involvement in AAP. Look, for example at all the University presses. If they do not back out of PRISM we should consider launching a boycott of AAP members.

Full list of AAP from the AAP web site:

Absey & Company, Inc.

Academic Innovations

Academic Learning Company, LLC

Academy 123, Inc.

Academy of Management

Aequus Technologies Corporation

Al-Basheer Publications and Translations

Algora Publishing

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Academy Ophthamology

American Association of Cancer Research

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists

American Chemical Society

American Foundation for the Blind

American Geophysical Union

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

American Institute of Physics

American Mathematical Society

American Medical Association

American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.

American Psychological Association

American Scholars Press, Inc.

American School of Classical Studies at Athens (The)

American Scientific Publishers

American Society of Clinical Oncology

Ames On-Demand

Apex CoVantage

Apex Learning, Inc.

Appalachian Trail Conference

Ardor Scribendi, Ltd.

ASIS International

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM, Inc.)

Association of Research Libraries

Athena Media, Inc.

Atypon Systems, Inc.

AV Book Publishers, Inc.

Avon Books/Harpercollins Publishers

Banta Company

Barnhardt & Ashe Publishing, Inc.

Barricade Books, Inc.

Baseline Development Group

Baydell & Brewer, Inc.

BBC Motion Gallery

Beacon Group, The

Beacon Publishing Services

Berkery, Noyes & Co.

Berkshire Publishing Group, LLC

Black Dome Press Corp.

Blackwell Publishing

Bloomberg Press

Booklight, Inc.

Books International, Inc.

Booktech.com

British American Publishing

Brookings Institution (The)

Brown Publishing Network, Inc.

Cadmus Professional Communications

Cambridge University Press

Capitol Books

CAST

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd

Caxton Printers

CFA Institute

Children's Book Press

City Lights Books

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Colorado Independent Publishers Association

Columbia University, DKV

Consumer Reports

Cornell Maritime Press

Cornell University Press

Council on Foreign Relations Press

Council on Library and Information Resources

Cover Publishing Co.

CQ Press

CrossRef

D2B Group, Inc.

Dana Press, The

Douglas & McIntyre

Eaglemont Press

Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

Educational Concepts

Element LLC

Elsevier Science Inc.

Emida International Publishers

Ernst & Young, LLP

F.A. Davis Company

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Feminist Press (The)

Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company, Inc.

Fordham University Press

Fulcrum Publishing

Gallaudet University Press

Genesis Press, Inc. (The)

Gival Press, LLC

Globe Pequot Press, Inc.

Great River Technologies

Grolier Educational

Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Grove's Dictionaries/Holtzbrinck

Hachette Book Group USA

Haiduk Press

Hammond, Inc.

Hampton-Brown Company, Inc. (The)

Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc.

Harcourt, Inc./Reed Elsevier

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

HarperCollins Publishers

Harvard Business School Press

Harvard University Press

Harvest House Publishers

Health Affairs/Project Hope

Hearst Book Group

Heinz Center (The)

Henry Holt & Co.

Hispanex, Inc.

Houghton Mifflin Co.

Howard University Press

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

Hyperion

Impact Publishers, Inc.

Info Sys Technologies, Ltd.

Ingram Book Company

Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)

Institute for International Economics

Institute for Scientific Information

Institute of Physics Publishing

Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (The)

iUniverse

The Institute, Inc.

J. Paul Getty Trust Publications

James A. Rock & Company Publishers

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Johns Hopkins University Press (The)

Jordan Publishing House

Journal of Rehabilitation Research Development

Keene Publishing

Key Education Publishing Company LLC

KidBiz 3000

Kirchoff/Wohlberg, Inc.

Knovel.com

LAD Publishing Company

Lattice Press

League of American Poets

Leapfrog Enterprises Inc.

Learning.com

Liberty Fund, Inc.

Library of Congress Publishing Office (The)

Lidenmeyr Book Publishing Papers

Lippincott Williams $ Wilkins Journals

Literary Architects

Little Moose Press

Lousiana State University Press

Love Publishing Company

Luxury Travel Books

Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

MacAdam/Cage Publishing Inc.

Mage Publishers, Inc.

Mark Logic Corporation

Market Data Retrieval

MarketingWorks, Inc.

Markus Wiener Publishers

Massachusetts Medical Society/New England Journal of Medicine

Math Teachers Press, Inc.

Mazer Corporation (The)

McGraw-Hill Companies (The)

Medical Group Management Association

Melville House Publishing

Meta Comet Systems

MG Taylor Corporation

Microsoft Corporation

Midland Information Resources

Minnesota Historical Society Press

MIT Press (The)

Modern Language Association of America

Momentum Books, LLC

Mondo Publishing

Mooring Field Books, Inc.

Morgan & Claypool Publishers

Morgana Press LLC

Moseley Associates, Inc.

Music Together, LLC

National Academy Press

National Computer Systems/Pearson

National Education Standards

National Geographic Society

National Learning Corp.

National Publishing Co.

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)

Nature America

New England Journal of Medicine

New Press (The)

New York Botanical Garden (The)

New York University Press

Newmarket Press

Oak Knoll Press

Overlook Press (The)

Oxford University Press

P. H. Glatfelter Company

Pan American Health Organization

Pangaea

Paratex, LLC

Parmenides Publishing

Pearson Education

Pelican Publishing Co., Inc.

Penguin Putnam, Inc.

Pennsylvania State University Press (The)

People's Publishing Group

Peter Li Education Group

Posterity Press, Inc.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

Posterity Press, Inc.

Princeton University Press

ProQuest Information

Pub Smarts, LLC

Publish America, Inc.

Publisher's Group Incorporated

Publishing House Research

Publishing Illuminations

Publishing Works

Quarasan Group, Inc. (The)

R R Donnelley

R.R. Bowker

Rainbow Books, Inc.

Rand

Random House, Inc.

Ray of Light Publishing Company, Inc.

Reader's Digest Association

ReadHowYouWant.com

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic

Red Rock Press

Reed Reference Publishing

Resolve Corporation

Resources for the Future/RFF Press

Rockefeller University Press

Rosetta Solutions, Inc.

Rowland Reading Foundation

Saferock USA, LLC

Sagaponack Books

Sage Publications, Inc.

Scholastic, Inc.

Scholatic Testing Services, Inc.

Scientific American/St. Martin's College Publishing Group

Sea Hawk Publishing

Seven Locks Press

SGI-USA

Sheridan House, Inc.

Simon & Schuster

Six Red Marbles LLC

Soft Skull Press

Springer Publishing Co.

Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

St. Martin's Press

Stanford University Press

Stoeger Publishing

Swan Isle Press

Teachers College Press

Thames & Hudson, Inc.

Thieme New York

Thomson Learning

Tichenor Publishing

Tighe Publishing Services, Inc.

Too Far

Tribune Education

Tupelo Press

Turtle Books

The University of Hawaii Press

UAHC Press

University of California Press

University of Chicago Press

University of Illinois Press

University of Tennessee Press

University of Texas Press

University Press of Kentucky

van Tulleken Company (The)

Vantage Press, Inc.

Veronis, Suhler & Associated, Inc.

Victory Productions, Inc.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Viz Media, LLC

Von Hoffmann Corporation

Walford Press

Wesleyan University Press

Western Economic Association

White Rhino Press

Whitston Publishing Company, Inc.

Wiggin and Dana LLP

William Morrow & Co., Inc./HarperCollins Publishers

Willow Creek Press, Inc.

Wooster Book Company

Words & Numbers.com

Workman Publishing

World Bank Group

Worth Publishing, Inc.

Xerox Corporation

Yale University Press

11 comments:

  1. wow, in all the coverage i've been following on prism, have never seen the pisd coalition.

    that just made my day. absolutely brilliant :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was gonna blog that! :-)

    Actually I still will, I want to highlight particular offenders. For instance, University presses should be responsive to faculty input, and so on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jonathan, I'd like to make it clear that membership in AAP does not imply or require endorsement of the arguments made by PRISM. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is currently a member of AAP but our access policies are our own. We were not involved in the formation of PRISM and do not support many of the statements being made on its behalf.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good to know John I. I was about to write to you to ask what you thought about PRISM. I would suggest that as an AAP member you might want to voice displeasure to the board or othters who planned PRISM.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jonathan,

    Thanks for getting the list!

    Of course the boycott should be partial. The fact that an organization like Cold Spring Harbor Press wants nothing to do with PRISM is exactly the point. As I said in my blog, the AAP goofed. As the comments from John Inglis make clear, the AAP leadership betrayed its members. Scientific publishing is not the place for the kind of public relations used to argue for Intelligent Design or against global warming. What I want now is for the AAP to give their attack dogs the pink slip, the sooner the better. If, on the other hand, this nonsense continues, then, over time, a more aggressive boycott will become justified. Scientific publishers that don't deserve to be boycotted will resign from the AAP and those that remain will be those that deserve to be boycotted.

    For me, the issue is less about open access than about the harm done by introducing this sort of irrational argument into the debate.

    Steve

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, I agree Steve. The issue is no longer about OA and it about the swift boat style of the PRISM site. As I have said many times, though I am a strong supporter of OA publishing, I realize they are valid concerns from reasonable publishers about how to achieve it. But those publishers need to show their reasonable side by removing themselves from AAP if it does not cancel PRISM.

    ReplyDelete
  7. If you pay close attention, you'll see that the main culprits behind the PRISM Coalition is actually the American Chemical Society.

    The executives at ACS like Rudy Baum, Madeleine Jacobs, and especially Brian Crawford at the AAP are fighting Open Access because they are trying to protect their bonuses.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, ACS is one of the worst culprits. I think anyone who is a member of ACS should work to change their policies and/or resign.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What is happening with the boycott of the AAP? I've Googled a bit and have not found much about where the boycott is going.

    PRISM is still very much alive and the AAP is still supporting the Conyers bill.

    I think it is time to speak up again.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well come on guys-- we can't boycott all of them. It needs to be partial..but they do need to be held accountable, good call.

    ReplyDelete

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