I think a far better idea than a privately run journal is the PLOS series of journals, which run an open access policy (the success of this has seen PLOS Biology's impact factor hit 13.9 -- this is higher than almost every journal except for Science and Nature):
http://www.plos.org/about/openaccess.html Does anyone know if there is some sort of a database which tracks the access/copyright policy of journals? --j On 11/20/05 2:51 AM, "Yaron Ziv" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear ecologists, > > Due to the copyright issue, as well as due to unrealistically high (and > unfair, in most cases) rate of journal subscription, Michael Rosenzweig > (University of Arizona) has established his privately-run journal: > Evolutionary Ecology Research. > > According to the journal policy: âEER maintains a pioneering and > enlightened copyright policy. It is designed to help your work obtain > the widest possible use and influence. Authors keep their copyright but > give EER the exclusive right to distribute their paper for one > year. Authors also agree not to charge for non-commercial use of their > work by educational and research institutions. Consult our copyright > policy and advise your society to adopt a similar one.â° > (http://www.evolutionary-ecology.com/) > > The journalâs Board of Editors includes: Anthony Barnosky, Gary > Belovsky, Tim Blackburn, Francisco Bozinovic, James Brown, Thomas > Caraco, Peter Chesson, Robert Colwell, Lynda Delph, Michael Doebeli, > Steve Ellner, Mikael Fortelius, Charles Fox, Gordon Fox, Paul Harvey, > Andrew Hendry, Raymond Huey, Yoh Iwasa, David Jablonski, John Jaenike, > Eva Kisdi , Andrew Knoll, Bill Kunin, Jesus Leon, Bruce Levin, Curt > Lively, Adam Lomnicki, Marc Mangel, Brian Maurer, Mike McKinney, Lauri > Oksanen, Stuart Pimm, Derek Roff, Daniel Rubenstein, Beryl Simpson, > Lawrence Slobodkin, Peter Taylor, Scott Wing, and Helmut Zwolfer.  So, > I guess it does not suffer from a reduction in its quality of science. > > Following the previous e-mail by Bill Silvert, I believe that if we > favor and encourage journals with a similar policy as that of EER, we > may be moving towards getting the copyright of our works (as well as > getting lower subscription rates . . .). I think it is also the > interest of the chief editors and associate editors of the other > journals, who serve as an important group of the scientific community. > > -- Yaron Ziv > > > > On 19 Nov 2005, at 07:53, Bill Silvert wrote: > >> The recent discussion of copyright law seems to have managed to bypass >> the >> key issues in a very disappointing way. One set of postings comes from >> people who are confused because they don't see what is wrong with >> copying a >> book that is out of print and totally unavailable, while the other set >> comes >> from legal scholars who write things like "I love to see discussios >> over >> copyright lead by people who don't know what they are talking about." >> >> Debate about copyright tend to focus on the right of creators of >> intellectual property to receive fair compensation for their labours, >> and I >> have never heard copyright defended on the grounds that it is a >> mechanism >> for the suppression of ideas - but this often happens. Sometimes >> copyright >> is used to deliberate material intentionally. Hollywood will sometime >> buy >> the rights to a film, withdraw it from circulation, and replace it >> with a >> remake. Some very important films, such as the Marcel Pagnol "Fanny" >> trilogy, were suppressed in this way, although many continued to >> circulate >> in bootleg versions and are again available. Rich companies and >> individuals >> have often tried to buy the rights to unfavourable books so that they >> can >> suppress them. More often works are suppressed through a combination of >> negligence and greed, such as when a company drops a CD, book or video >> game >> from its catalogue but will not release it into the public domain. >> >> While the loss of an art work in this way is sad, in science it is >> totally >> unacceptable. Scientific progress requires the open exchange of ideas, >> and >> withdrawing books and journals from the scientific community is >> tantamount >> to burning them. Suppose that the Vatican, instead of issuing bodily >> threats >> against Galileo and Copernicus and actually burning Bruno at the stake >> had >> simply been able to buy up their copyrights? Or that Hitler had been >> able to >> withdraw from circulation all the German journals where Einstein and >> others >> published their results? >> >> Although these examples are exaggerated, copyright law is a serious >> problem >> for modern scientists. If you want to publish you have to transfer the >> copyright to the publisher, giving up even your own rights to what you >> wrote. Your work may simply vanish into limbo - the publisher declares >> bankruptcy, the book never gets printed, the journal becomes defunct - >> but >> the copyright never reverts to you. Maybe the publisher decides to >> drop the >> book because it serves a market where books favourable to evoloution >> are not >> selling well! >> >> Let me end with an example: Suppose that you write a paper in your >> field >> which you want to distribute in its entirety to your graduate students. >> According to at least some of the expert postings on this list you >> have no >> right to do this unless you buy the reprints from the publisher. Would >> you >> really be prepared to tell your graduate students that they can't have >> copies of the paper on which their theses are to be based because you >> can't >> afford the reprints? >> >> I think that the basic point comes down to this - a scientist should >> have >> access to all revious work in his field. If he can get access through >> legal >> means, buying a book or such, that is the proper route to take. But if >> there >> is no legal access, then copyright law should not be an obstacle to >> the free >> flow of information. >> >> Bill Silvert >> -- Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD NRC Research Associate NASA Ames Research Center MS 242-4 Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 650-604-5896 AIM: jgrn307 MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
