ABSTRACT
There is some apparent conflict involving reference librarian ethics and their relationship to some recently published views relating to peer review and the scholarly communication system. A case study, based on the gap between the promotional rhetoric and the actual peer review, editorial practices of a famous reference work, the Lexicon of the Middle Ages (Artemis Verlag, Munich), brings this conflict into sharp relief.
An academic debate in the field of art history of the Middle Ages, known as the Guide Riccio controversy, has been called the “case of the century” in art history. Material distributed by the Lexicon of the Middle Ages states that in the case of controversies, protagonists of opposing sides will have the chance to express their ideas in the pages of the lexicon. But the protagonists of one side of the Guide Riccio controversy were flatly rejected. If providing accurate information, and providing access to all sides of an issue, are tenets of library ethics, it would seem logical that academic and reference librarians would become professional allies of the academic whistleblower.
