February 9, 2007

Publishers Hire PR Firm to Counter Open-Access Publishing Movement; Former Board of 'Topology' Starts a Rival Journal

By SUSAN BROWN and RICHARD MONASTERSKY

PEER PRESSURE: The Association of American Publishers has hired a public-relations firm with a hard-hitting reputation to respond to the open-access-publishing movement, which campaigns for scientific results to be made freely available to the public, the journal Nature reported in January.

The firm, Dezenhall Resources, designs aggressive public-relations campaigns to counter activist groups, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that monitors the