[lbo-talk] A public square

joanna 123hop at comcast.net
Mon May 21 09:14:08 PDT 2007


Can't the Internet break this -- I mean physicists could get together and decide to open-source physics publication by publishing on the web. Authors would still get little or nothing for publication, but everyone could get access to the stuff for the price of an internet connection -- libraries included.

Joanna

Joseph Catron wrote:


>How about the racket of high-end academic publishers who solicit
>articles from professors, pay the authors little or nothing, then sell
>them back to the same institutions that funded the research for
>thousands of dollars? The professors have little choice but to go
>along with it, since their tenure and promotions rely upon publication
>in prestigious sources. And the institutions need the articles for
>their ongoing research.
>
>This scandal is one of the single biggest drags on academic
>librarianship. By way of example, the physics library at my alma
>mater, which was left unguarded 24 hours a day, contained a slim
>quarterly journal which cost $25,000 a year. I was always tempted to
>make the modest effort necessary to steal the collection, but
>refrained. (Scruples aside, what the hell would I have done with a
>stack of physics journals?)
>
>If anyone's interested in learning more about this disgracful
>situation, a Google search for "academic journal pricing crisis,"
>minus the quotation marks, will reveal a wealth of information.
>
>On 5/21/07, joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>>Chuck wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Don't get me started on how public libraries are using taxpayer money to
>>>
>>>subsidize large publishers. The evil side of Harry Potter.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Get started. That's a very interesting topic. I would have guessed there
>>would be a conflict of interest...."publishers sell less because I can
>>get their books at the library...."
>>
>>Could you say more?
>>
>>Joanna
>>
>>
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