More on EurekAlert!

*lightbulb moment* They need a copy of the Science Blogging Anthology!!

Yes - but which individual person there?

Hello to readers of this Web site. I welcome the opportunity to clarify reporter registration processes in place at the science-news Web site, EurekAlert!. More than 5,200 reporters from 60 different countries are now registered to access embargoed news on EurekAlert!. Another 700,000 members of the public access non-embargoed news on the site each month. In accordance with Securities Exchange Act guidelines, embargoed access is provided for on-staff and freelance reporters, editors or producers who are employed by accredited news media outlets. Science reporters who meet these criteria and also have blogs are, of course, not excluded from access to embargoed content on EurekAlert!. Individuals with dual affiliations are ineligible (i.e., financial analyst, lobbyist, researcher, professor, physician, student, and so on). As the Internet media evolves, EurekAlert! and its advisors will continue to evaluate policies. Thank you for this opportunity to explain the situation of our non-profit organization.

Wow! So if you are a scientist or student you cannot get embargoed content?! That is outrageous.

And this also means that one can get embargoed articles only by getting an additional stint with a real magazine, implying that blogs are not serious outlets. Hogwash!

I had an experience with eurekalert and the researcher whose work was reported. I wrote a post in Agonist describing the research at Dartmouth on fMRI studies of brain maturation and complained about the unavailability of the source material. Having access licensed through a university library, I could read the material myself to make my summary but felt obliged to respect the stated and implied embargo and not paste up content.

The author, a Dartmouth Psych/Med reseacher, responded in commments to the Agonist post and gave me permission to use and a pointer to unembargoed PDF...he WANTED discussion of his findings. [who here is surprised by that?]

Moral: it is not usually, probably rarely ever, the idea of the researcher to limit access to his/her findings...it is only the financial interest of the "news" provider, trying to get a little exclusivity on the source for which they are only a wrapper or a pointer. pulishing models have certainly multiplied and changed but hoarding a cash source never changes.

I use eurekalert for its "first notice" capability then go google for alternatives using keys I interpolate from the eurekalert articles [and I am an AAAS member!]

I should be more precise...it was not eurekalert that "owned" the material. They mostly just filter newsreleases that point you to original sources. A journal, with only heavy paywall in front of its web version, was the "owner" I was unwilling to go against.

guess I better go read your post from yesterday. I don't see much value or much protection for the reposted news releases, some of which seem to be trying to drum up a little readership for obscure journals or papers on the border between institutional puffery and actual science.

What in the world is going on here? Ms. Pinholster thinks that you and The Panda's Thumb are worthy of her copy and paste comment but not me, the one they dissed. Niiiice.

And I agree with greensmile. Researchers are more than happy to talk to others who are interested in their work. It's not as if anyone was standing by with tape to shut me up whenever I talked about my studies at meetings and wherever likeminded people gathered. Embargoes be damned.

It's not just embargoed papers. Some organizations won't even send bloggers press releases (eg. AlphaGalileo, on the basis of lacking "approved" press credentials). Other organizations, though (eg. the APA) are more flexible about the definition of media and do embargo papers along with regular email notifications. AAAS needs to get with the times.

I'm with you on this one.