Instead of or in addition to boycotting and protesting, I think there is a much
simpler and effective solution. Ask your kids. If they can share their music,
why can't we share our papers? It's called peer-to-peer technology and requires
just a little bit of good will from ourselves. All we need is to assemble our
collections of pdf articles that I bet each and everyone of us has on our hard
disks, and make them available for sharing.
Students are already doing this. See this article:
http://eaves.ca/2009/04/28/education-where-copyrighters-and-publishers-are-the-pirates/
Unfortunately these efforts seem to be sharing the fate of Napster, attacked by
lawsuits. However this can and will still develop without any centralized
services on a peer-to-peer basis as supported by bit-torrent and other software.
So it's really up to us to make it happen.
--
Alexey Voinov
_____________________________________________________________________
!!!**** please note new e-mail address: aavoi...@gmail.com ****!!!
_____________________________________________________________________
Chesapeake Research Consortium Community Modeling Program &
Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Geography and Environm. Engineering
645 Contees Wharf Road, P.O. Box 28, Edgewater, MD 21037
TEL: 410 798-1283; 703 880-1178 WWW: http://www.likbez.com/AV
Fellow, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics,University of Vermont
President,Int.Envir.Modeling. and Software Soc.,http://www.iemss.org/
New book: Systems Science and Modeling for Ecological Economics
http://books.elsevier.com/companions/9780123725837
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 16:56:12 -0700
From: Wayne Tyson <landr...@cox.net>
Subject: Re: Open Access and Intellectual Imperialism Approval required Re:
[ECOLOG-L] Teaching Biostatistics !!!
(Suggested replacement post)
Ecolog:
"In my university I do not have access to literature sources like =
Biological Abstracts for example to reach the authors and articles . . =
."
This is an excellent example, unfortunately, of how pricing =
intellectual resources out of range for "outsiders" is a moral =
indictment of much of academia. This man--or any man or woman or child =
(especially) should never have to hit a university firewall, be required =
to pay tens of dollars ($30, $40, and more) to download a pdf file, ad =
nauseam. Think of the burdensome expense and effort required on the part =
of so many even to gain the privilege of Internet access in the first =
place!=20
Those truly concerned about the future of the earth and its life, even =
civilization, should realize that the history of intellectual =
development is one of free exchange of ideas and information, not its =
conversion into profit centers. It is not the struggling who should pay =
the comfortable, it is the comfortable who benefit from free =
intellectual synergy that compounds like a breeder-reactor, who should =
pay forward and backwards to ensure rather than obstruct such exchange.=20
At long last, hath academia no sense of decency? Are there no =
institutions out there sufficiently well endowed and clearly =
beneficiaries of the wealth of intellectual struggle handed down from =
people like Dr. Voltolini throughout history (and still do--Copernicus, =
Darwin . . .) who will turn this embarrassing state of arrogant =
possessiveness around?
Can you imagine having to make this kind of request at every stage of =
your own process of intellectual enquiry?=20
How is it possible that, this many years into one of the most =
transformational achievements of human society, that Dr. Voltolini =
should still be barred from journal access that costs zero to provide?=20
Why not, at the individual level, that academics simply boycott =
journals which charge for access and publish in open access journals? =
While these may not be perfect at the moment, might not such a =
second-stage transformation accelerate their development and foster =
rather than retard intellectual synergy?=20
WT
PS: David has suggested that I explain "how journals (e.g. those of =
the Ecological Society) are supposed to pay to publish papers if nobody =
has to pay to read them." This email is intended to illuminate the =
problem and hear from others before deigning to suggest how all of the =
complexities of this issue should be resolved. The first step, of =
course, is in recognizing the problem or refuting the assertion that =
there is a problem. I do not pretend, in as brief an email as possible =
and still state my position unequivocally, to cover every aspect of the =
subject. I do, however, know of institutions that have cancelled journal =
subscriptions. I believe that very large institutions (e.g. the =
University of California Library may have negotiated price reductions =
from some journals; I am not up-to-date on this case, but the UC Library =
did raise the issue quite vigorously a few years ago.=20
I will offer the following observations, and invite correction if they =
are in error. I hope this helps=20
1. The major "clay paper" journals are VERY profitable.=20
2. Publishing in such journals is a political balancing act, not to =
mention that author charges are often involved. (I am not against =
reasonable author charges if they do not inhibit publication on the =
basis of merit and are collected on the basis of the ability to pay by, =
and the benefit to, sponsoring institutions.)
3. It is impossibly expensive for independent researchers or those =
whose affiliations do not subscribe to Internet journal service to scan =
great volumes of literature. Abstracts are wholly inadequate for =
literature "review."
4. I recognize that publication costs must be met, but =
scientific/scholarly/intellectual publications should be financed by the =
"nobility," not enrich them. Peer reviews should be the obligation of =
the reviewers to the discipline involved.=20
5. I suggested a boycott, but only intend that measure for those =
entities looking at pdf downloads (for example) as ways to embellish =
their bottom-lines, particularly when they gouge for them (charge out of =
proportion to their actual marginal cost). Since intellectual articles =
are in relatively scant demand, they are not likely to be priced =
according to pricing theory anyway, so the benefiting institutions =
should pay the actual costs--plus a margin for a cushion-endowment =
perhaps.=20
6. I do not think David or anyone else should have to be bothered with =
sending materials to requestors who are deprived of equal =
privileges/rights. While this is generous in the extreme, there is still =
a faint sniff of (unintended) patronizing in that, and the requestor =
must be driven to make the request in the first place. Most simply =
suffer in silence.=20
7. My primary question to Ecolog remains "Is this intellectual =
imperialism or not?"=20
8. One who is "in" simply cannot know what it is like to be "out."=20
----- Original Message -----=20
From: "VOLTOLINI" <jcvol...@uol.com.br>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 2:17 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Teaching Biostatistics !!!
> Dear friends,=20
>=20
> I am teaching Ecology and Biostatistics and I am working on =
different ideas to teach data analyses for Biology students.=20
>=20
> Now, my students will measure several moluscan shells from polluted =
and not polluted marine sites (it is a simulation!) and if they read =
about the subject they will be more interested in the analysis! Do you =
have articles about the "effect of pollution on shell size" ?=20
>=20
> In my university I do not have access to literature sources like =
Biological Abstracts for example to reach the authors and articles and =
thats why I requesting some articles.=20
>=20
> Thanks for any help!!!
>=20
> Voltolini
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Prof. Dr. J. C. VOLTOLINI
> Grupo de Estudos em Ecologia de Mamiferos (ECOMAM)=20
> UNITAU, Depto. Biologia, Taubate, SP. 12030-010.=20
> Grupo de pesquisa ECOMAM: http://jcvoltol.sites.uol.com.br/=20
> Fotos de projetos e cursos: http://jcvoltol.fotoblog.uol.com.br/=20
> Exemplo de um curso de ecologia de campo: =
http://trabiju.blogspot.com/=20
> Fotos artisticas: http://voltolini.fotos.net.br/texturas=20
----------------------------------------
