Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 06:30:59 -0700

For those who think there's nothing good at the multiplex, there's a
new documentary called Paywall: The Business of Scholarship with
Director: Jason Schmitt and sponsored by Open Society Foundations:
https://paywallthemovie.com/    The premiere is this evening 5
September at 5:30 p.m. at the Landmark Theater in Washington DC, but
there are other showings scheduled in the next couple of months at
MIT, Berkeley, UCSD, Cornell, Arkansas, and the UN, and a long list of
other academic institutions to have screenings but without dates
showing yet.

Here meanwhile is a review with nuanced observations by Richard
Poynder, certainly sympathetic to the OA movement as few others!

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06140-7

I'm struck as often by the brand success of Elsevier.  Poynder
observes that the film singles out Elsevier for the most criticism
though in his view they are merely more successful than most.  Like it
or not, Elsevier has established itself as the name that comes to mind
when you think of big science publishing.  That, at least, is a real
success for their marketing department, whatever we may think of their
practices.

Jim O'Donnell
ASU