As the Publisher at Elsevier responsible for managing our geography
journals, I have been following this discussion, and feel I should now
contribute to it.
James Sidaway, Associate Editor of our journal Political Geography, has
invited Paul Chatterton and Dave Featherstone to use the journal as a
forum in which to air their criticisms of Elsevier in a formal academic
manner. As Dave mentioned on 13 November, their “Intervention: Elsevier,
critical geography and the arms trade” is now published online as an
Article in Press in ScienceDirect: doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.07.003 .
The intention is that this should appear in the printed journal alongside
a response from me, representing Elsevier’s view, which can also be found
online: doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.10.001 . Some of the content may be
familiar to you from previous Elsevier responses. However, I hope this
response will add some useful information, e.g., that cluster bombs will
be banned from DSEi 07. (And, contrary to Jon Cloke’s note to this forum
on 13 October, cluster bombs were not displayed or offered for sale at
DSEi 05 either.)
I don’t expect my article to change the views of anyone who feels that any
association with the arms trade, however legal and however limited, is
wrong. But perhaps I can hope to show that we at Elsevier are aware of
your concerns, and that – as the exclusion of cluster bombs from DSEi 07
demonstrates – Reed-Elsevier policies can be changed as a result.
Chris
Chris Pringle
Publisher - Geography, Planning, Development & Transportation
Elsevier
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Kidlington
Oxford OX5 1GB
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