NPG as in Nature Publishing Group for those not in the know, this includes the journal Nature. What might have sparked off this?
An impending price increase of 400% for journal subscription.
Michael Eisen, nailed it down it his blog post.
I totally agree with his view especially how he describes the situation as:
"Only one thing — short of outright insanity — can lead a company to think they can get away with this kind of behavior: a monopoly. And it is the monopolistic, and grossly unfair and irrational, business model that NPG and most other scientific publishers employ that should be the real target of any organized action from UC faculty."
Jonathan Eisen also has interesting things posted here
I think the price increase might be a good move to persuade researchers to use soft copies of journals instead of having to resorting to print. But as Michael rightly points out. It shouldn't be an issue of price. And price increase in this climate, I think NPG might be making a wrong move here.
What are your thoughts? Would you adhere to such a boycott if your department is against the idea?
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