Simon, Thank you for such a clear exposition!
Bob ________________________________ From: Simon Biggs <s.bi...@eca.ac.uk> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour@netbehaviour.org> Sent: Fri, 22 July, 2011 11:03:56 Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] should we not react about what happened Aaron Swartz? The journals are an important part of the peer review mechanism but it is the institutions that provide the peer review. They pay the salaries of the reviewers (the academics). The journals do not pay for this. The academics write the papers, review them and then read them. Their institutions pay their salaries to do this and pay the library subscriptions to buy the journals. It is becoming prevalent that publicly funded research (which 90% of research in Europe is) is required by the funders to be placed in the public domain and free to access on the web at the expense of the institutions. This is changing the way the journals work. The main problem is how to sustain peer review, a corner stone of research and science. If the journal system becomes redundant then another system will be required - independent of the institutions, who have a vested interest in promoting the research of their academics. Just how this will play out is unclear. What is clear is that the current system is falling apart but nobody wants the system to collapse, not until something else is in its place. As a result institutions, funders and policy makers are improvising temporary solutions as the situation evolves. Conferences are becoming important as they can provide the peer review mechanism, with delegate's conference fees (paid by the institutions) covering the process of review, the costs of the conference itself and the publication of proceedings. It costs money to make knowledge and that has to be paid for. In Europe that is often the tax payers responsibility. But not all economies have the foundations that allow this model to function. In the US, with a smaller tax base and a different role for the public sector, charities such as ITHAKA are very important. In countries like India, Brasil and China things are different again. How do the economics of academic research work in these and other contexts? As these are the emerging global powers then their models may well replace those we are familiar with. Best Simon On 21/07/2011 20:21, "Pall Thayer" <pallt...@gmail.com> wrote: > This problem lies much deeper within the academic institution. It has > to do with Universities and research institutions/funders requiring > that researchers publish under peer review. The publications supply > that peer review and then sell their journals for vast amounts of > money. JSTOR doesn't publish or peer review. All they do is provide a > searchable archive of what the journals have published and, if I > remember correctly, they aren't allowed to include content until it's > a couple of years old. The way to battle this and truly make > information free is to try to get the institutions to change. To > provide the peer review themselves and publish material freely on the > web. > > On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 2:45 PM, Catherine Daly <c.a.b.d...@gmail.com> wrote: >> It is just this institutional affiliation that's the problem. It >> effectively undermines independent scholarship. I've never lived >> anywhere that had a public library subscription. >> >> I guess the solution is to visit San Francisco and get a card there.... >> >> Catherine Daly >> >>> Any attempt at painting JSTOR as a "bad guy" is pretty absurd. They're >>> a non-profit organization that provides an invaluable service that >>> most individual users don't pay for. They get free access through >>> institutional affiliation. For those who don't have that sort of >>> affiliation, many public libraries also make JSTOR available to card >>> holders. >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> > > Simon Biggs | si...@littlepig.org.uk| www.littlepig.org.uk s.bi...@eca.ac.uk | Edinburgh College of Art www.eca.ac.uk/circle | www.elmcip.net | www.movingtargets.co.uk Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
_______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
