Information Research Weblog

Thanks again to Peter Suber's newsletter for an item about the decision of the American Anthropological Association to transfer its publishing services to Wiley-Blackwell. The basis for the decision appears to be, in part, a report by the AAA's Director of Publishing which contains a truly amazing proposition:

Today’s electronic environment mitigates against a small scholarly publisher continuing to operate its entire program independently

I don't think I've seen such an unintelligent statement about publishing in the electronic era. It is exactly the opposite of the true situation: the electronic environment makes it easier for scholarly societies to pursue an independent programme. I would urge members of the AAA to abandon their organization (since it has abandoned them to the vagaries of commercial decision making) and develop their own alternative publishing outlets. There are many examples of collaborative, non-commercial OA journals from which they could take models and encourgement.

PS: I ought to have pointed out that the statement is also illiterate: the word sought was "militate" not "mitigate" - you can't "mitigate against" something - "mitigate" means to lessen the effect of something.