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Although not directly related to This sounds like a disturbing
change. From http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/310/5753/1407a?etoc Science 2 December 2005: Vol. 310. no. 5753, p. 1407 DOI: 10.1126/science.310.5753.1407a News of the Week SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING: NIEHS Journal Is on the Block Jocelyn Kaiser The new director of the National
Institutes of Health's (NIH's) environmental institute has drawn flak by
proposing to sell off the institute's well-regarded journal. In September, David Schwartz
requested public comments on privatizing the journal as part of an
"ongoing review" of programs. Dozens of scientists and environmental
and health groups have reacted in horror, fearing the loss of the journal's mix
of research and news, now free online. Some also worry that a commercial owner
would be less likely to publish findings unflattering to industry. Last month,
a dozen Democratic members of Congress chimed in, writing NIH Director Elias
Zerhouni that privatizing the journal "places at risk the integrity and
quality" of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The 33-year-old EHP is published by
the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a branch of
NIH in Since the institute announced its
proposal in the 19 September Federal Register, more than 70 mostly academic
researchers--including members of EHP's editorial board--have signed a letter
voicing "strong opposition" to the move. They fear that nobody else
will want to publish its mix of toxicology, epidemiology, medicine, and risk
analysis, that developing countries would lose free access, and that EHP's
"extras" such as news coverage of "complex science" would
be discontinued. Some scientists also worry about EHP's independence. "A
commercial publisher may be less willing to publish articles that have
implications for powerful interests," suggests epidemiologist David
Michaels of Some environmentalists worry that
privatizing the journal could be part of what they perceive as a shift away
from examining the risks of pollutants and toward studying clinical disease.
"The E in NIEHS is going silent," claims toxicologist Jennifer Sass
of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Schwartz declined to be interviewed,
but NIEHS noted in a statement that the government publishes few scientific
journals. (In 1997, for example, the only other major NIH-published journal,
the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was spun off and is now published
by Oxford Press.) NIEHS also argues that maintaining EHP as a government
publication "may actually limit the journal's independence and potential
future growth." The institute expects to make a decision in the next few
months. John Rebers |