On 2011-11-07, at 3:30 AM, Allen Kleiman wrote: Authors do not write for free. 1. Publication = Tenure = Promotion = Money! 2. Publication = Prestige = Speaking Engagements = Money! 3. Publication = Professorships = Money! 4. and etc.
Not a single penny of that Money is paid to authors by *publishers*, in exchange for being *given* their paper, cost-free, to go ahead and sell. So it is *completely* irrelevant. That is the point you keep missing in your analogy to auto re-sale. When you sell a car that you designed and built to a vendor, the vendor pays you for it, in exchange for the right to sell it to someone else. If you happen to win an award for the auto design from your design institute, *that's not the vendor paying you for the right to sell your car.* The only essential service a journal provides is the one you kept referring to as "verification of its reliability and safety by two or three mechanics of questionable qualifications and skill [likewise for free]" -- Yet it's in exchange for that [peer review]-- and not for cash -- that authors give publishers their paper to sell, royalty-free. Green Open Access to the author's refereed final draft online is provided by the author as a supplement, so that his paper's research uptake, usage, citations and impact (which are what generate the Tenure, Promotion, Prestige, Speaking Engagements, Professorships -- and research progress) can be provided by *all* its would-be users, not only by those whose institutions can afford to subscribe to the publisher's version of record. Scrap the car-sale analogy. It simply does not fit the subtle and unique case of refereed research publication of impact-seeking (not royalty-seeking) work. Stevan Harnad On 2011-11-06, at 4:08 PM, Allen Kleiman wrote: Is this a matter of 'commerce'? Yes indeed, but definitely not commerce along the lines of the analogy you describe below: Suppose I own a car and [1] offer it for sale to a rental company with [2] the verification of its reliability and safety by two or three mechanics of questionable qualifications and skill. However, [3] I want to include a condition of sale that the buyer will make the car available to all the poor people in my town for free since they can't afford to pay for the rental.  When a Publisher offers to print an article -- certified by referees of questionable repute -- and [4] absorbs the cost of publication, distribution, and etc., isn't he entitled to [5] retain the rights of sale? Now let me count the myriad ways your analogy fails:  [1] offer [car] for sale: No, authors don't sell but give their paper to the publisher. They don't ask or get a penny in return.  [2] verification of [car's] reliability: The referees, too, offer their services for free -- but to the publisher, not the author.  [3] condition[s] of sale: No sale, no sale conditions. Author gives the paper to the publisher for free. [4] cost of publication, distribution, and etc.  In exchange for managing and certifying the outcome of the refereeing ("by referees of questionable repute"), the author gives the publisher is given all rights to sell, on paper or online. [5] retain the rights of sale:  In exchange for managing and certifying the outcome of the refereeing ("by referees of questionable repute"), the author gives the publisher is given all rights to sell, on paper or online. In addition, the author simply places a free copy of the author's final draft ("certified by referees of questionable repute") online for those who cannot afford to pay for access to the publisher's version of record, on paper or online. That's Green OA.