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

[Christian Nelson]

On Feb 7, 2008, at 7:33 PM, Heidelberg, Chris wrote:
> There are many great research projects that are not seeing the  
> light of day because of the media monolopoly and it is time for the  
> dispossed to create their own online journals.

Publishers have no reason to squelch great research. Their only  
interest is in increasing their revenue, which would actually be  
improved if the journals they published had a wider representation of  
thought. But they're hamstrung by the  dynamics of academia I  
mentioned earlier. This is clear, because they're more than happy to  
create new journals that represent new theoretical or methodological  
viewpoints when the readership for those viewpoints becomes big  
enough to sustain a journal.

> I have worked in the media for 20 years and I arrived at that  
> conclusion long ago, and so must academic otherwise it is engaging  
> in self-censorship rather than spreading knowledge which we are all  
> required to do.

Academia is not a sentient being that can perform intentional  
actions. But individual academics are such beings and can perform  
such actions. Further, whether consciously or not they follow what  
they perceive are their self-interests, which logically lead to the  
current situation, as I indicated before. The only way to change the  
situation is to change academics' self-interests and their perception  
of how those self-interests must or can be fulfilled. Anyone got any  
ideas?

Christian Nelson