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

[Christian Nelson]

I wish that publishing became open-access. Unfortunately, it won't  
any time soon. At least, it won't until renowned scholars switch from  
publishing in locked-down journals to publishing in open-access  
journals, because untenured folks have to publish in the places where  
their most reputable colleagues do, and successful scholars have much  
to lose by publishing via open-access journals. No longer could they  
control the editing process as fully as they do now. As plenty of  
researchers in the sociology of the sciences have observed, the most  
successful scholars in any discipline form a group who all know each  
others' work, monopolize editorial board positions, and tend to  
inflate the value of eachother's work and that of eachother's  
students such that papers by those outside the group are denied  
publication much more than consideration of quality warrant. If the  
current group of gatekeeping scholars advocated open-source  
publishing they would lose their current publishing advantage and  
everything that comes with that--an easier time of promoting the  
careers of their supportive friends and students, an easier time  
padding out their vitas so that they can get grants, etc. In other  
words, they would threaten their enjoyment of what famed sociologist  
Robert Merton called the Matthew effect. Why would they ever do that?
--Christian Nelson