Chemical Publisher trying to rein in National Institutes of Health

Durst writes “The American Chemical Society is lobbying Congress to rein in a new NIH database on biomedical research stating that the database infringes on and is competing with the private sector. Here’s the story from Federal Computer Week.”

June 1, 2005 by Uncategorized 4

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4 Responses

  1. kmhess says:
    June 1, 2005 at 3:57 am

    Its about what is best for the CAS franchise
    That’s a quote from the end of the article. I’m always confused about this ‘government-run entity infringing on the private sector’ argument. The idea is that there is a market for something, but because the government can do it more efficiently it puts the private company out of business.

    For consumers, isn’t that better? And I thought the government was some sort of bloated bureacracy that can’t do anything efficiently?

    Reply
  2. Brian G. says:
    June 1, 2005 at 4:30 am

    Lots of Discussion among Science Librarians
    These actions have brought up a lot of discussion among the science librarians.

    The American Chemical Society would back down if government would stick to their own objective (organize information about the biological activities of chemical compounds into a comprehensive biomedical database). The foundation of PubChem was built up by organizing a large quantity of general chemical information before biological information was added. PubChem claims the information is needed within the biological discussions. ACS is worried PubChem will not stop and will just add anything chemically related.

    It is going to be very interesting to see what the sides or a judge decides.

    Reply
  3. Daniel says:
    June 1, 2005 at 9:51 am

    Re:Lots of Discussion among Science Librarians
    There’s also a thread on this topic, plus a few other PubChem related links at Free Government Information.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous Patron says:
    June 2, 2005 at 5:16 am

    Chemical Publisher?
    Isn’t ACS a non-profit professional organization?
    Isn’t ACS in fact a tax-exempt organization with Education as its stated goal?

    How does ACS qualify as a private sector publisher when it is every bit as supported by tax dollars as pubchem?

    Does lobbying congress for protection violate the section 501 standards for educational organizations?

    Reply

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