The Fields medal is know as the Nobel of mathematics. Tim Gowers was awarded the Fields medal in 1998 for contributions to functional analysis, making extensive use of methods from combinatorial theory. Tim Gowers is currently the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He posted recently on his decision to stop supporting (with his actions, such as submitting paper and reviewing papers) the anti-open-science behavior of Elsevier (a particularly aggressive anti-open-science publisher that also has very bad pricing practices).
Elsevier — my part in its downfall
…
Elsevier supports many of the measures, such as the Research Works Act, that attempt to stop the move to open access. They also supported SOPA and PIPA and lobbied strongly for them.
…
I also don’t see any argument at all against refusing to submit papers to Elsevier journals.
So I am not only going to refuse to have anything to do with Elsevier journals from now on, but I am saying so publicly. I am by no means the first person to do this, but the more of us there are, the more socially acceptable it becomes
Good for him. All we need is for more and more scientists, mathematicians and engineers to support open science with thier actions and open science will be the way things are. It is as simple as that. The outdated business practices of the old journals will die. Either the existing publishers will finally give up on their extremely outdated practices or they will be replaced.
Related: The Architecture of Access to Scientific Knowledge – Merck and Elsevier Publish Phony Peer-Review Journal – The Future of Scholarly Publication (2005) – Science Journal Publishers Stay Stupid (2007) “It is time for the scientific community to give up on these journals and start looking to move to work with new organizations that will encourage scientific communication and advancement”

Pingback: Nobel Prize Winner Criticizes Role of Popular Science Journals in the Scientific Process » Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog
Pingback: Publish Articles Promoting Better Management Using Open Journals » Curious Cat Management Blog