[Air-L] A modest proposal [was: Re: Open access and academia.edu]

Wed Dec 11 06:24:55 PST 2013

Mathieu,

I think this is a great point, and especially instructive for the senior members of the field. I also think it's important to recognize the different ways people can contribute to the larger Open Access project at various stages of their careers. For instance, as a young scholar, I have more pressure to publish in the "right kinds" of journals, and very little cache when it comes to hiring decisions or grant reviews. For me, the best solution is to continuously post my work publicly, even if illegally. 

I wrote a blog post about all of this (with links to the archive) that some may find interesting: http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/12/11/elsevierremoving-papers-from-academia-edu-since-2013/

Jenny L. Davis
Assistant Professor of Sociology
James Madison University
Weekly Author: Cyborgology.org
Twitter: @Jenny_L_Davis

________________________________________
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Mathieu ONeil [mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au]
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 5:50 PM
To: scott at scottmacleod.com
Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] A modest proposal [was: Re: Open access and academia.edu]

Hi all

In the last 24 hours several CFPs have been posted to this list, if I'm not mistaken all of which were for closed journals. We are enmeshed in the old ways: how do you shift the battleship? (As an aside, even if you have tenure, your performance is evaluated every year and you are expected to publish a certain number of papers in certain categories of journals. The same goes for when you apply for research grants, you have to point to a track record of publications.)

So what can be done? We need to change the perception of what is "valuable". First - of course - publish and review for open access journals as much as possible. Second, a simple idea would be: when applying for a grant or writing a performance assessment, we should use the term "open access" as if it were as "valuable" and praiseworthy as "highly ranked". In other words open access should be framed as a central characteristic of excellence in scientific / academic publishing. The same goes for when we review others' research grant applications or promotion / job applications.

Just my 2c,
cheers
Mathieu
________________________________________
From: Scott MacLeod [scott at scottmacleod.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:59
To: Mathieu ONeil
Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: Re: [Air-L] Open access and academia.edu

Hi Mathieu and AoIR,

As part of the free, open, Academic Journals' 'ecosystem,' here's startup, C.C. World University and School's Academic Journal's wiki, Subject page -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Academic_Journals_at_WUaS#World_University_and_School_Links . World University and School (which is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW and planning online, C.C. MIT-centric, university
degrees in many languages) is also planning to develop academic journals in large languages to begin. For example, at present anyone can go to any subject on the main, WUAS, wiki, Subjects page -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects - in English only (at this time), and find Academia.edu near the top, and potentially add the article they've written to that subject.

Here's an example of a Subject page ... 'Open_Access_Resources' at WUaS - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Access_Resources - and as a C.C. wiki, anyone can start a Subject page in an area they're interested
in, using this SUBJECT TEMPLATE - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE - or similar, which currently includes Academia.edu, since it's free and open, and makes it possible for academics to self-
publish.

Have AoIR-ers seen Harvard computer science Professor Stuart Shieber's recent blog entry " Thoughts on founding open-access journals," which I've added to this WUaS Open Access Resources' subject using a version of
the AAA citation approach:

Shieber, Stuart. 2013. [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2013/11/21/thoughts-on-founding-open-access-journals/ Thoughts on founding open-access journals]. November 21. Brookline, MA:
blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2013/11/21/thoughts-on-founding-open-access-journals/.

Stuart Shieber is one of the leading, tenured academic voices for open access journals, and writing very sensibly.

As startup World University and School develops and begins to accredit for university degrees, WUaS's approaches to online journals will move beyond Academia.edu's approach, particularly with respect to the editorial
Board per Stuart Shieber's article.

(A huge project, wiki WUaS seeks to begin the MIT / Harvard of the internet and in all 7,105 languages and 242 countries, and Wikipedia, by way of comparison, is in 287 languages and just developed and deployed a CC
database, Wikidata. And WUaS plans to become a significant employer eventually, first hiring graduate students from greatest universities, if possible, as journal editors, and instructors in G+ Hangouts for example, to MIT
faculty in MIT OCW in video).

I think Elsevier and Academia.edu will continue to pursue their publishing strategies, but make questions of Copyright and Creative Commons' licensing (
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Creative_Commons_Law#World_University_and_School_Links ) more significant.

Best,
Scott

- Scott MacLeod - Founder & President
- http://scottmacleod.com/worlduniversityandschool.html
- World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT OpenCourseWare (not endorsed by MIT OCW) - incorporated as a nonprofit effective April 2010.

On Mon 09/12/13  1:49 PM , Mathieu ONeil mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au sent:
> Hi Ivan
>
> Thanks for explaining! ;-) Well yes, pretty much everything you do online
> can be tracked, measured and sold (if that's what you mean by
> "control"). Nothing mysterious about that. Facebook and
> academia.edu have the same model (they even look the same): you provide
> content, we network it. It's a trade-off. If anyone can set up a
> non-commercial alternative that offers the same functionalities, I'll jump
> in right away (@Rob: I'm looking at you!).
> Re. open-access, at the risk of repetition: if you just have volunteers (as
> most open access journals do) then you will have inconsistent proof-reading
> and hence mistakes and errors (not all researchers can copy-edit or
> proofread well, particularly when English is not their first language).
> Maybe a slip in text quality is the price to pay? So yes, pools of
> university-run journals could pay proofreaders... in the current climate
> not sure many will go down that path.
> cheers
>
> Mathieu
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Iván [ivan.cha
> ar at gmail.com]Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 8:26
> To: Mathieu ONeil
> Cc: Jonathan Sterne, Dr.; <air-l
> @listserv.aoir.org>Subject: Re: [Air-L] Open access and academia.edu
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I have been following this thread with interest and I would like to thank
> you all for the discussion.
> Mathieu, I think the walled garden Jonathan is suggeting goes beyond
> notions of ease of access. After all, new media devices and social media
> are usually designed for easy use. However, this ease is tied to
> obfuscatory operations whereby control, data collection and other
> procedures are 'hidden' from 'plainview.' I think it is our task to
> interrogate these obfuscations.
> Though I use academia.edu, this conversation has pushed me to reconsider
> how I present my research while contributing to free and open access.
> Also, thank you for posting the titles of good open access journals.
>
> Best,
> Iván Chaar-López
> PhD Student
> Department of American Culture
> University of Michigan
> @multitudenred
>
> > On Dec 9, 2013, at 3:46 PM, Mathieu ONeil <math
> ieu.oneil at anu.edu.au> wrote:>
> > Hi Jonathan
> >
> > You probably should stop changing the title of
> the messages: breaks the thread :-)> The garden wall does not seem unscaleable,
> anyone can create an account on academia...>
> > cheers
> > Mathieu
> >
> >
> >
> ________________________________________> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Jonathan Sterne, Dr.
> [jon
> athan.sterne at mcgill.ca]> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 7:07
> > To: <air-l
> @listserv.aoir.org>> Subject: [Air-L] Open access and
> academia.edu>
> > Just to be clear for Matthieu, my point wasn't
> about services  and whether people like academia.edu or not.  Many of my
> colleagues love it.  My concern is profit models and ethical and social
> obligations, especially differences between theirs and mine.  The walled
> garden is reason enough for me not to opt in.  I have managed to continue
> discovering good new work without it.>
> > On the services front, just a big +1 to the
> points from Daren and Rex.>
> > Also: if you want open access journals to have
> higher impact factors, don't just submit to them, read the and cite
> them.>
> > And one more thing: those of us who write tenure
> reviews also need to take time in our letters to argue for the significance
> of new publishing models when junior scholars take advantage of
> them.>
> > Jonathan
> >
> > PS -- Still, I also believe there is a place for
> university and independent presses: they do a lot of useful work for
> authors and for readers.  Even the most committed digital humanists are
> still writing books, as are many social scientists who want to reach wider
> audiences.  And funding for good open access journals remains an
> issue.> --
> > http://sterneworks.org> (apologies for iPad typos.)
> >
> >> On Dec 9, 2013, at 9:38, Matthieu "air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:>>
> >> iefly: not sure about comparing the enormous
> fees charged by Elsevier etc to a free service like Academia. Now, granted
> that Academia.edu may be profiting off users, but - apart from its social
> networking functions - it does provide services since it tells you (amongst
> other things) (1) when people search for your work, what search terms they
> use, where they come from; (2) how many times subscribers have downloaded
> specific items; (3) when people upload content that you are interested in.
> If it did not do those things people would not use it>
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