I had a lot of negative things to say about Elsevier last spring as I was forced to use their piece of crap Virtual Clinical Excursion software and workbook in maternity class. But even I am shocked to hear that Merck paid Elsevier to publish a fake peer-reviewed journal. Yes, bad Merck, too, but at least Merck is in the business of pharmaceuticals, not publishing. If Merck uses unethical advertising techniques, this doesn't necessarily compromise their pharmaceuticals. If Elsevier publishes a fake journal, this calls into question their entire existence as a business (not to mention the public service aspect of being a biomedical publisher).
While I love books more than computers, and I had a romantic view of the publishing industry through most of my young life, up through about 1998-99, it's time for these publishing houses to die. At least a little bit.
via BoingBoing
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