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Science 23 September 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5743, p. 1987
DOI: 10.1126/science.309.5743.1987e
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Random Samples

Figure 1 No talking. Two members of an American Chemical Society (ACS) committee have resigned to protest what they say is the society's tight-lipped handling of its battle against a free federal chemical database.

The flap involves the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) PubChem, which ACS leaders see as a threat to the fee-based Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) (Science, 2 September, p. 1473). At an ACS meeting in late August in Washington, D.C., member David Spellmeyer distributed fliers announcing that the issue would be discussed at the open meeting of ACS's Joint Board-Council Committee. But CAS president Robert Massie told the crowd there was no time and that those with PubChem questions could talk to an ACS spokesperson.

That was the last straw for Spellmeyer, an IBM researcher, and informatics expert Gary Wiggins (left) of Indiana University, Bloomington, who chose to resign from the committee. "It's mostly because they're not talking about it openly," says Wiggins. ACS spokesperson Nancy Blount says ongoing negotiations with NIH require "confidentiality" and that the council's chair must approve additions to the agenda. But "we do take seriously the request for more communication," she says.

CREDIT: INDIANA UNIVERSITY




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