Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Energy Department Seeks to Close Web Site That Searches Journal Abstracts By ANDREA L. FOSTER The U.S. Energy Department wants to shut down a Web site it operates that lets scientists search journals for citations and abstracts in the physical sciences. The department says the site, called PubScience, duplicates commercial services. PubScience permits researchers to examine more than 1,000 peer-reviewed journals free and at the same time, instead of searching multiple Web sites, publications, and references. The Web site was in jeopardy as far back as a year ago, when the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill accompanied by a report that recommended eliminating the service. (See an article from The Chronicle, July 20, 2001.) But Thurman L. Whitson, product manager for PubScience, said the report was not a factor in the Energy Department's recent decision. A notice on the PubScience Web site explains that two privately run Web sites, Scirus and Infotrieve, do the same thing as PubScience. It also says that 90 percent of the literature available through PubScience can be retrieved through the two commercial sites. Scirus and Infotrieve "have progressively increased the availability of freely searchable citations, and this trend is anticipated to continue," the PubScience notice says. Stephen Miles Sacks, editor and publisher of Scipolicy: The Journal of Science and Health Policy, says the Energy Department informed him on Tuesday that PubScience would cease to exist in 30 days. But Mr. Whitson says the department would not make a final decision on the Web site until after September 8, the deadline for receiving public comments on the proposal. Mr. Sacks is strongly opposed to the elimination of PubScience and says that abstracts from his publication are compiled by neither Scirus, which is owned by Elsevier Science, nor Infotrieve. "The action is ill-advised and anti-small-science research," he says. Background articles from The Chronicle: Senate Bill Offers Tacit Approval of Scholarly Web Portal Scorned by House (8/9/2001) Congress Acts to Shut Down Government Web Site Used for Journals Research (7/20/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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