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Archives: Freedom of Information Act

Revisiting: The Price of Posting — PubMed Central Spends Most of Its Budget Handling Author Manuscripts

Revisiting Kent Anderson’s post based on his FOIA request documents show that PubMed Central spends most of its money tagging author manuscripts, and that its stricter rules for NIH authors may double its costs.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Apr 8, 2015
  • 44 Comments

PubMed Central Revealed — Reviewing and Interpreting the Findings of a Surprising 2013

As requested, here is a summary of all the things found so far through the FOIA requests regarding PubMed Central — from eLife to BMC to JMLA to conflicts of interest to coverups. It’s quite a fetch.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Dec 24, 2013
  • 56 Comments

The Silent Dog — Why Didn't the PubMed Central National Advisory Committee Even Bark?

The PMC NAC, facing controversies about its oversight functions and seeing the focus of its oversight embroiled in a public scandal, said nothing about these topics at its latest meeting.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Nov 14, 2013
  • 10 Comments

PubMed Central and eLife — New Documents Reveal More Evidence of Impropriety and Bias

New documents show that the Director of the NCBI was deeply involved in getting eLife launched on PubMed Central, that NLM staff were uneasy about the shortcuts taken to make it happen, and that eLife was largely driving the bus throughout.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Oct 15, 2013
  • 22 Comments

Link Miser — Why the NLM Links to PubMed Central Versions Directly from PubMed Search Results

Why does PubMed preferentially link to PMC versions in its search result lists? Emails from 2011 suggest it’s specifically to generate more traffic to PMC and show off NLM services.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Oct 8, 2013
  • 3 Comments

Are US Taxpayers the Primary Beneficiaries of the NIH Public Access Policy?

New evidence suggests that US taxpayers are not the major beneficiaries of the NIH Public Access Policy, and that even within the NIH, there has been some unease about the situation.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Sep 5, 2013
  • 10 Comments

The Price of Posting — PubMed Central Spends Most of Its Budget Handling Author Manuscripts

New documents obtained via an ongoing FOIA request show that PubMed Central spends most of its money tagging author manuscripts, and that its stricter rules for NIH authors may double its costs.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Jul 16, 2013
  • 30 Comments

PubMed Central and F1000 Research — More Signs of Favoritism and Activism, and More Conflicts of Interest

More indications of favoritism and cronyism, this time stretching back from F1000 Research to BioMed Central, and more mismanaged conflicts of interests. The common thread may be a new “old boys” network.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Jun 25, 2013
  • 17 Comments

New Scholarly Kitchen Podcast — Adventures with the FOIA

A new episode of the Scholarly Kitchen podcast is ready. This time, we talk with head chef Kent Anderson about his experience filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

  • By Stewart Wills
  • May 29, 2013
  • 0 Comments

The Lens We Look Through — Are We All About Containers or What Goes Into Them?

An analysis of publishing costs continues the theme of accountability and transparency, but perhaps focuses too much on the containers of information rather than how and why the containers are filled in the first place.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Apr 2, 2013
  • 23 Comments

Don't Shoot the Messenger — Keeping Our Eye on the Real Meaning of the eLife-PubMed Central Scandal

Attacks — both overt and covert — from OA advocates and NIH/NLM phantoms come in the wake of the posts revealing how eLife and PubMed Central coordinated activities and kept secrets.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Feb 12, 2013
  • 12 Comments

Pulling the Wool Over Their Eyes — The PubMed National Advisory Committee and Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest at PubMed Central have been mismanaged, and seem to have led to loading the National Advisory Committee with Wellcome representatives, among other things.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Feb 8, 2013
  • 11 Comments

Why Were PubMed Central and eLife Discussing PeerJ?

When PubMed Central expedited eLife, PeerJ wondered why. Emails within PMC suggest they were tempted to help PeerJ in the same way. They even talked with eLife about how to handle things.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Feb 7, 2013
  • 19 Comments

Something's Rotten in Bethesda, Indeed — How PubMed Central Came to Help Launch and Initially Publish eLife

Circumstantial evidence has become direct evidence — that eLife requested publication in PMC; that PMC collaborated with eLife; that PMC sought to conceal its preferential treatment; and that systems and processes at the NLM regarding PMC inclusion are unclear and open to abuse and misuse.

  • By Kent Anderson
  • Feb 6, 2013
  • 43 Comments

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The mission of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is to advance scholarly publishing and communication, and the professional development of its members through education, collaboration, and networking. SSP established The Scholarly Kitchen blog in February 2008 to keep SSP members and interested parties aware of new developments in publishing.

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