[Air-L] Elsevier and academia.edu

[Suely Fragoso]

Hi again. Great and enlightening discussion!

I would like to comment two points: 

First, I'm with Daren - why publish with the big companies after tenure?  I confess I never understood the logic of the US academic environment, or even if and why  the same rules and values apply in Europe, Canada, Asia, etc. It seems that Latin America is the only exception in a world where everybody runs the same tenure system (there are reasons to publish with the big business here as well,  but I will not bore the majority describing what appears to be a strictly regional set of oddities).

It seems that everyone aggrees that open access is better in that it makes our work available to a much larger group of readers. However, it is not so easy to locate good reliable open access journals that run a proper and well intentioned peer review system and  that will not surprise us at the end of the reviewing process by charging a 'publication fee to cover the costs' (I know publishing have costs, I have been involved in all parts of the process, from scientific editor to support in the printing factory. Believe me, the fees are disproportionate).
I remember having heard of a wiki listing open access journals with information about their reviewing practices, who is 'behind the curtains', etc. Does it exist?  If not, I think it is  time we start one.

My second point is why we make our work available in Academia.edu. I would say it is because papers in Academia.edu get higher rankings from big bad giant Google (I suppose Academia.edu *is* Google. Is it?) Ranking higher means that more people get to read our work, as Academia.edu profits from it but does not charge the reader (or the author). I am not saying it is good or we can't do better - of course we can. I'm just trying to locate what is needed to lead our initiatives to success.

Suely

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