carpe diem

[brs4@lehigh.edu]

[cross-posted]

With the NIH events, as well as a more recent and highly ambiguous
development with one major publisher (which may not amount to anything,
but provides an object lesson), the time is more ripe now than ever before
to pursue the overlay journal concept that has been bandied around. For
only one modest description, see the powerpoint and the full text link of
material I prepared for a NAS conference,now posted at:  
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bcst/Agenda_Pub.html 

See appendix for the overlay journal concept. A detailed history of this
concept should be written by someone, so that the wheel will not be
continually reinvented.

Proponents of open access and/or of far more affordable for-charge access
would do well to start focusing more systematically and energetically on
this issue.

It's palpably clear that publisher largesse with respect to self-archiving
will not be consistently forthcoming, and even if it were, (as already
mentioned a while back), the plug can be pulled at any time. How much more
evidence of this is needed? This is not an argument against
self-archiving, but rather that a fresh emphasis could be placed on
beating commercial entities at their own game.

It is not govt, nor commercial publishers, nor even scholarly publishers
that will resolve the crisis in serials publishing in a stable and
long-lasting way, but rather universities, and especially university
consortial efforts that can achieve economies of scale. Will they step up
to the plate, to learn how to beat the commercials (in particular) at
their own game?

Brian Simboli