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

[Caroline Haythornthwaite]

This one has prompted me to respond! ... This is such an odd view of "powerful 
academics". It is precisely the "powerful academics", aka tenured and/or full 
Professors, who can afford to go to these new venues. Moreover, if work is not 
getting full play in journals -- because of the invisibility and inaccessibilty of 
print journals or fee-based online journals -- then why wouldn't we all flock to 
online publishing to gain the 'power' of widespread access.

So, why don't we? -- because, believe it or not, many of us actually have put 
time and energy into journals -- setting them up, reviewing papers, considering 
the standards of good research, argumentation and knowledge, and wanting to 
make it worth someone taking the time to open up a journal, and for those 
outside our discipline to take us seriously as a discipline. Yes, it is a gatekeeper 
role, and I'm proud to be part of it as should be all others who strive for quality 
in their work and *their* journals.

/Caroline



---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:37:15 -0500
>From: Christian Nelson <xianknelson at mac.com>  
>Subject: Re: [Air-L] open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic 
journals  
>To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>
>We're still talking about open-source journals that would utilize  
>some sort of reader rating system to make editorial decisions, right?  
>Why would powerful academics leave the current set of journals, over  
>which they have total editorial control, for journals over which they  
>would have considerably less control, considering that journal  
>article publication is the main source of academic capital for most  
>scholars? No one ever gives up power willingly.
>
>On Feb 8, 2008, at 4:25 PM, Jimmy Wales wrote:
>
>>  So yes, I agree: luring big names is part of what has to be done.   
>> I just don't find that particularly daunting.
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----------------------------------------
Caroline Haythornthwaite
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820