Life of a Lab Rat

It's all gone a bit George Smiley.

Peter is concerned about the American Chemical Society (ACS), as well as PRISM, Open Access, and stuff like that. I left a comment on his weblog recently, and from there I think someone at the ACS must have stumbled across the Labrats, because I have a received a second spam email from them, with yours truly in the 'Bcc:' — but this time 'To:' is someone at the NOAA.

My mystery correspondent begins

Dear Colleague and Friend,

Several of you contacted me
about a memo from Judith L. Benham which claimed that the American
Chemical Society is not protesting Open
Access in order to preserve profits and bonuses for the Society's executives.

S/he kindly attached the memo, and continues (I should make explicit that I am quoting from an email. These are the mystery author's opinion and claims, not mine),

Let me assure that I was not involved with last week's memo which is riddled with multiple misdirections typical of a slick political commercial. The most obvious falsehood is this passage: "Our Society's position is also represented by the Association of American Publishers, a non-profit organization whose membership encompasses the major commercial and non-profit scholarly publishers, including ourselves. ACS is not alone among scholarly publishers in reaching out to...."

The statement comes apart once you know the names of the players involved.
The position of the AAP was developed by Brian Crawford, who is chairman of
their scholarly division . Brian Crawford is also head of publishing at ACS. Big surprise.

So what we have are two organizations speaking from the same mouth.

This allows for clever gamesmanship by ACS executives..
Just last year, Rudy Baum wrote his second editorial in Chemical & Engineering
News where he called Open Access "socialized science."[1]

To buttress his argument, Rudy cited--who would have ever guessed!?--the Professional
and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American
Publishers, which "has taken a strong stand" against the Open Access bill.

Rudy also wrote that the AAP's scholarly division had written letters to
senators opposing the bill.. What Rudy forgot to disclose to his
readers is that the letters were signed by the chairman of the AAP's
scholarly division, who is Brian Crawford, also head of publishing at
ACS.[2] Crawford is now apparently Rudy's boss.

Yes, Baum is that ridiculous. But it must be hard for a man to fully inform
readers when his wallet tugs at his conscience. Oh...it gets better.

Brian Crawford holds up his end of the bargain by penning letters against
Open Access on behalf of the AAP, such as the letter last year to the Los Angeles
Times. Brian wrote, "government bureaucracy continues to impede
participation and undermines the successful expansion of information access."
Crawford's byline was credited: "The writer chairs the executive council of the
professional and scholarly publishing division of the Assn. of American Publishers..[3]

I guess that Brian forgot to mention to the Los Angeles Times
that he is also a publishing executive at the American Chemical
Society. He might also have troubled editors with the minor fact that
his bonuses will plummet if ACS publishing profits drop..

So now you see how their political campaign against Open Access works.
First, Crawford creates the policy position at AAP's scholarly division; ACS
executives then point to AAP policy for cover with their members. But it is all a shell game that
quickly falls apart once anyone spends five minutes on Google. Links to the
appropriate information can be found [embedded by BK]. Look for yourself and have a giggle.

And just to prove that we're on the same team, a cheery wave goodbye

I hope everyone has a smashing week! Please keep sending in your emails with links and other bits of information that you find on the internet. And see the wiki for further information. It is only by demanding that ACS leadership becomes more accountable to members that we will see change.

Sincerely,
ACS Insider

No doubt the emails are flying today, because the US is, as I write this, about five hours from waking up, and it's a big day for Open Access over there:

URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Tell your Senator to OPPOSE amendments that strike or change the NIH public access provision in the FY08 Labor/HHS appropriations bill

not that we in the boonies can do anything about it, except maybe tell our friends.

Oh, and naturally, I will continue to report any further developments.