EurekAlert disses blogs

EurekAlert which is run by AAAS is a useful and timely (though not foolproof) source of science news that many science bloggers use to keep up to date on what's new. However, they seem to be behind the curve in at least one way - they categorically do not disembargo the papers to blogs of any kind, not even blogs affiliated with scientific or journalistic organizations. How do they think they will start entering the 21st century and remain competitive?

More like this

Ever have one of those times when you have a cool new blog post all ready in your head, just needs to be typed in and published? Just to realize that you have already published it months ago? Brains are funny things, playing tricks on us like this. I just had one of such experiences today, then…
Here are some of the thoughts and questions that stayed with me from this session. (Here are my tweets from the session and the session's wiki page.) Among other things, this panel took up the article panelist Lindsey Hoshaw wrote about the garbage patch for the New York Times and some of the…
You may be aware that, as of recently, one of my tasks at work is to monitor media coverage of PLoS ONE articles. This is necessary for our own archives and monthly/annual reports, but also so I could highlight some of the best media coverage on the everyONE blog for everyone to see. As PLoS ONE…
I arrived in San Diego on Thursday night and checked in my hotel that was 6 miles away, almost in Mexico - I could see the lights of Tijuana from the hotel. I had to take a cab each morning and evening. On Friday morning, I got up bright and early and came to the convention center, lugging my huge…

Herm, this sounds familiar... something about the printing press and the Bible and literacy...

Science bloggers are THE people they should be giving access too. I certainly think theyre more qualified than the authors of the terrible 'summaries' of recent publications I see in my local newspaper. Plus its interactive-- readers can ask questions of the blogger and get real science responses. Wonderful way to increase scientific literacy.

This is incredibly silly.

It's possible they're doing this because they're worried that having the papers on blogs could undercut Science magazine revenue. Still a stupid reason.

By David Bruggeman (not verified) on 08 Mar 2007 #permalink

Let's see. More blogs linking to papers in Science means more traffic, and in the Web 3.1 world, more traffic means more money.

Yep. Sounds like a stupid reason to me.

I served on the advisory committee to the AAAS when Eurekalert! was established. The restrictions on access to embargoed material was set up in response to the input of science reporters from the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, etc., who argued that their publications would not consider the embargo system legitimate if the material was made available to people other than members of the working press. They pointed out that providing such material to other people increased the possibility of abuses such as insider stock trading. As a result, the AAAS adopted strict requirements for access. Of course, this was before the blogosphere arose. If bloggers feel that they should access to this kind of material, then they need to come up with a method that will prevent people whose primary interest is insider trading, etc., from gaining access.

By David Salisbury (not verified) on 09 Mar 2007 #permalink