Publishing Group Hires 'Pit Bull of PR'

Schroeder said it would be wrong to make a big deal of the arrangement. Dezenhall "is an esteemed author," she said, adding that his firm is not so bare-knuckled that it ought to be avoided. "You take any PR firm in Washington," she said. "I mean, please."

But after years of failing to make headway -- two bills and appropriations language mandating public access to government-funded research are slated to be introduced in the new Congress -- the publishers decided they needed help.

"We thought we were angels for a long time and we didn't need PR firms," Schroeder said.

Heather Joseph, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition, which has been lobbying for more public access, offered a different perspective.

"It is dismaying to see the AAP turn it into a disinformation campaign," Joseph said in an e-mail. "These policies are not about government censorship or destroying peer review -- they are about expanding access to publicly funded science -- pure and simple."

Dezenhall said in an e-mail that he does not comment on clients or contracts.

Kevin McCauley, editor of the trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Report and the man who coined Dezenhall's "pit bull" appellation in a 2006 interview with Business Week, said the publishing association may live to regret the image of desperation that comes with an association with Dezenhall.

"The question I want to ask the publishing association is why a group that publishes scholarly journals feels the need to go this route," McCauley said.

His question might best be answered by the one-page statement the association released yesterday, which Schroeder confirmed was written internally and not by Dezenhall.

"Private sector non-profit and commercial publishers serve researchers and scientists by managing and funding the peer review process, disseminating authors' work, investing in technology and preserving millions of peer-reviewed articles as part of the permanent record of science," the statement read, in part.

Convinced?