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

[Michael Zimmer]

Peter Suber has been one of the louder voices in the open access  
movement, and has a great blog, newsletter, and timeline on related  
issues:

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/hometoc.htm



-----
Michael Zimmer, PhD
Microsoft Fellow, Information Society Project
Yale Law School
e: michael.zimmer at yale.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org


On Feb 7, 2008, at 9:48 AM, Cristina Lopez wrote:

> You're definitely not crazy, and in your blog entry I like that you  
> make
> more specific suggestions for people to take action. An issue that is
> very much related: the obscenely high cost of journal  
> subscriptions. For
> librarians, the rising cost of journal subscriptions is a big concern
> (and I would think those very expensive journals are the least
> accessible to people outside the university as well as the most  
> strictly
> controlled in terms of copyright and distribution). From the  
> perspective
> of sheer expense and budget pressures, the high cost of "locked-down"
> journals has many effects on scholarship in addition to access. Faced
> with tremendous budget pressure, libraries can't afford to  
> subscribe to
> journals with great intellectual value but perhaps have lower
> circulation. The high cost of journals is linked to the  
> commodification
> of scholarship, which affects quality. Commodification tends to result
> in homogenization, whether we're talking about food or media or  
> scholarship.
>
> Librarians and faculty working together are already addressing the  
> issue
> of the high cost of journal subscriptions, and I believe their  
> concerns
> greatly overlap with yours. (I found this
> <http://www.library.uiuc.edu/scholcomm/journalcosts.htm> page at the
> University of Illinois Library Web site, for example.) Maybe you wrote
> your blog entry in haste, but to me your list of suggested actions
> implies greater focus on actions of individuals, albeit individuals  
> who
> belong to particular groups.  So to your list of suggested action I
> would add that /organizing/ interested parties across campus and  
> across
> institutions is very important. For example, while I think it's
> admirable for untenured faculty to take a stand, tenured faculty  
> should
> take on a lot of the burden. (In my view this is exactly why tenure is
> so valuable--tenured faculty can raise a ruckus about all kinds of
> things.) And librarians and other staff have a lot to bring to the
> table, too.
>
> Don't mourn. Organize! :)
>
> Cris
>
> Cristina Lopez, Ph.D.
> Digital Media Center, OIT
> University of Minnesota
> 212 Walter Library
> 117 Pleasant St. SE
> Minneapolis, MN 55455
> 612.626.6639
>
> Please visit our Web site: http://dmc.umn.edu
>
>
>
> danah boyd 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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