Onwards!

Although I wouldn’t want to a hit someone while they’re down, hitting a large faceless evil corporation, whose sole purpose is to extract rents from the academic community, while they’re down rather appeals to me.

Elsevier just sent out an email announcing (amongst many other things, to be blogged about later, I guess) they are withdrawing support for the Research Works Act.

Elsevier has announced today that we are withdrawing our support for the Research Works Act. In recent weeks, our support for the Act has caused some in the community to question our commitment to serving the global research community and ensuring the best possible access to research publications and data. We have heard concerns from some Elsevier journal authors, editors and reviewers that the Act would be seen as a step backwards for expanding options for free and low cost public access to scholarly literature. That was certainly not the intention of the legislation or our intention in supporting it. Please read our full statement online.

Good news—now let’s turn retreat into rout.