[Air-L] open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic journals

[Alexis Turner]

Associating quality with locked down journals is the lazy way to read a journal 
- in essence, you are relying on the peer-review committee to vet the article 
instead of vetting it yourself or allowing others to vet it *with* you.
There are, however, other ways to identify the quality of an article than by 
having an editor pre-read it, including weighted voting systems that the users 
of an alternative journal can engage in (weighted as in certain respected 
users' votes carry more weight than others), reading it carefully, judging by 
others' comments, citation rates, reputation, source, etc etc.    And, of 
course, just because something is open-access does not mean there is not an 
editorial staff selecting what to publish.  Open access journals do not have to 
be free-for-alls.  They can be set up as grant-funded, non-profit, or ad funded, 
thus still employing a paid editorial staff while not charging for their 
publication.

In other words, open access v. closed is not = quantity v. quality; you've 
bought into a false dichotomy between the two that closed journals exploit in order to 
maintain their stranglehold.

I am relatively sure danah is not recommending putting *more* papers out there.  
She is recommending putting good papers out there in different places than they 
are currently going.

As far as free labor....if you write a damn good article and people look at it, 
talk about it, and cite it, you get respect.  You are receiving a payback on 
that investment.  I am not sure how that is free. This recommendation was not 
for free labor.  It was for wider dissemination of the fruits of your labor, 
and only wider dissemination.
-Alexis

On Thu, 7 Feb 2008, Martin Garthwaite wrote:

::Danah,
::
::You're certainly not crazy, I currently have no plans for an academic career
::when I finish my PhD, but I would challenge the concept of free labour.
::Surely publishing papers in respected journals is an investment in your
::career. Quality of papers not quantity I'm guessing is the goal for most?
::
::Martin
::
::On Feb 7, 2008 6:07 AM, danah boyd <aoir.z3z at danah.org> wrote:
::
::> At AOIR this year, we heard a lot about open-access journals and the
::> future of academic publishing.  These talks were extremely well-
::> received.  At the same time, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of
::> us came back home and continued to publish with the same respected
::> journals that we've always published with.  I've certainly seen a lot
::> of CFPs from folks wanting to publish issues in locked-down journals.
::>
::> Today, an article of mine was finally published in Sage's Convergence
::> series.  I should be excited by this, but I'm actually quite
::> depressed.  While I'm lucky to be visible enough that some folks will
::> find out about my article and ask me for a copy, most of the articles
::> in that issue will barely get read because they are virtually
::> inaccessible.  Additionally, while scholars will ask me for my
::> article, most policymakers and technologists will not, even though the
::> article is probably more relevant to them than it is to you.  I
::> believe that the locked-down nature of this publishing regime silences
::> academics while capitalizing off of our free labor at every turn.  I
::> think that this is unfair, unacceptable, and irresponsible.
::>
::> Thus, since I'm a blogger, I wrote a ranty blog entry about the topic:
::> http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/06/openaccess_is_t.html
::>
::> In said ranty blog entry, I laid out a set of steps for how to proceed
::> to make change.  For example, I think that all tenured faculty have a
::> responsibility to stop publishing in locked-down journals and help
::> build up the reputations of open-access ones.  (I even believe that
::> those who flout journal's restrictions by publishing their pieces on
::> their websites are failing future generations by not pushing for
::> change to happen.)  I offer steps for scholars, libraries,
::> universities, tenure committees, disciplinary associations, and
::> scholars at all stages.
::>
::> In short, I'd like to see a boycott of locked-down academic journals.
::> I think that it's particularly critical in our field since we are
::> doing work that is relevant beyond the academy.  I think that we need
::> to stand in solidarity to stop this abuse of our labor and this
::> silencing of our voices.
::>
::> Am I crazy?
::>
::> danah
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::
::
::-- 
::Martin Garthwaite
::
::+447957 764819
::Skype id mgarthwaite1330
::MS IM marting at gmail.com
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