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

[Nico Sica]

I suggest also Stevan Harnad:

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/

Best,
Nico


Il giorno 07/feb/08, alle ore 16:15, Michael Zimmer ha scritto:

> 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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