Vanishing Act -- continued

["T Scott Plutchak" <tscott@uab.edu>]

As the most recent posts on this issue have pointed out (Lapelerie, 1/23;
Watkinson 1/24; Goodman 1/25), there is a significant gap between the
policy that is supposedly in place at Elsevier (Menefee 11/6/02 on the
redelscustomers list), and the actual practice that is taking place.  Bad
enough to have a policy that is troubling in principle, opaque in
practice, and relies on the academic community to trust that it will be
faithfully executed -- even worse to see how far short the practice
actually falls from the policy.

David Goodman points out the only acceptable circumstance for removing an
article -- the order from a court of competent jurisdiction (and, as I
have argued here previously, internationally accepted standards in this
area should reduce even those circumstances to something approaching
zero).  The lawyerly fear of some possible legal action is absolutely
insufficient for a major player in the academic arena.

Even if Elsevier is unwilling to take such a step at this point, they
should immediately revise their practice to properly annotate those cases
in which articles have been removed so that the academic community can
make some judgment about what is actually happening to the literature.  
Such a step would at least indicate some consideration of these issues and
a willingness to participate in the dialog.  (Elsevier's silence on the
issue since the appearance of the Chronicle article has been disappointing
to say the least -- if they have made some statement somewhere that I've
missed, I'd appreciate anyone directing me to it.)

Anthony Watkinson mentions a number of the organizations that ought to be
taking up this issue.  In addition to those he mentions, this has been a
topic of discussion within the Medical Library Association Board of
Directors and I have been in contact with the International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors to see if it can be placed on the agenda for their
upcoming June board meeting.  I strongly encourage readers of this list
who are officers and members of relevant organizations to take this issue
to those organizations.

T. Scott Plutchak
Editor, Journal of the Medical Library Association
Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham
tscott@uab.edu