Rep. Conyers wants science to be secret… or you will pay

[ensho]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/03/06/rep-conyers-wants-science-to-be-secret-or-you-will-pay/


There are some things science needs to survive, and to thrive: eager, hardworking scientists; a grasp of reality and a desire to understand it; and an open and clear atmosphere to communicate and discuss results.

That last bit there seems to be having a problem. Communication is key to science; without it you are some nerd tinkering in your basement. With it, the world can learn about your work and build on it.

Recently, government-sponsored agencies like NIH have moved toward open access of scientific findings. That is, the results are published where anyone can see them, and in fact (for the NIH) after 12 months the papers must be publicly accessible. This is, in my opinion (and that of a lot of others, including a pile of Nobel laureates) a good thing. Astronomers, for example, almost always post their papers on Astro-ph, a place where journal-accepted papers can be accessed before they are published.

John Conyers (D-MI) apparently has a problem with this. He is pushing a bill through Congress that will literally ban the open access of these papers, forcing scientists to only publish in journals. This may not sound like a big deal, but journals are very expensive. They can cost a fortune: The Astrophysical Journal costs over $2000/year, and they charge scientists to publish in them! So this bill would force scientists to spend money to publish, and force you to spend money to read them.

Why would Conyers do this? Interestingly, if you look at the bill sponsors, you find that they received twice as much money on average in donations from journal publishers than Congresscritters who don’t sponsor the bill — though to be fair, the total amount is not large. Still, Conyers got 4 times as much.
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let's all of us turn our gaze on Conyers

[msongs]

1. maybe Conyers can write some "stern" letters and issue toothless subpoenas - worked so far nt

[acmavm]

2. May Conyers be a successful in this endeavor as he has been

in prosecuting the bush** criminals.

[HillbillyBob]

3. Since our tax dollars are part of the funding everything needs to be

open and above board. Why this sudden want or need for secrecy?
Dint Mr Conyers want ( * ) to be open and above board?????

[BobRossi]

4. He has been hanging around his wife too long.

She is a Detroit City Council person, and nuttier than a fruitcake.

[ensho]

5. very interesting - thanks for info - what bent does her fruitcakeness take?

just curious

[BobRossi]

8. Example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZQLxVO-qjM

[ensho]

9. jeez - see what you mean

nt

[Bread and Circus]

11. OMFG! As a Michigan resident, I gotta say this is kind of eye opening...

[MadHound]

6. Doesn't sound like this proposed law is even Constitutional,

What given the First Amendment and all that.

[madrchsod]

7. this is nothing new for conyers...he has a problem with the net

http://www.pcmag.com/topic/0,2944,t=John%20Conyers&s=1489,00.asp

[Ghost in the Machine]

10. John Conyers is too old & feeble minded and needs to retire

He's gone off the deep end in the last 2 years.. all of the tired, lame, old fuckers need to go to make room for some younger, more progressive representatives...