Will PubMed Central Be Next?
PMC may be a big, soft target for culture warriors fighting DEI and LGBTQ topics
PubMed Central (PMC) sprang from Harold Varmus’ 1998 E-Biomed proposal, launching as a reflection of the PubMed (née, MEDLINE) index instead of accepting papers directly from authors. Publishing papers in full on the platform has invited a controversy over the redundant costs, a controversy about private entities being allowed to use government infrastructure against policy, and a famous scandal about PMC being exploited by a UK publisher via collusion with US government employees.
PMC has felt the cold steel of corruption before . . .
Over the years as OA publishing has become more common, PMC has hosted more of the scientific literature. Once a source of pride, with the new Administration in Washington, DC — where censorship over issues like equity issues and transgender identification — this trove of papers may be facing some peril.
Recent events have revealed how risky it can be in this environment to depend on governmental equanimity to keep science in place.
A paper published in 2022 on PSNet, the Patient Safety Network, a federally funded initiative, was expunged because it appears to violate Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” signed on Inauguration Day.