RE: OA Now

[Richard Feinman <RFeinman@downstate.edu>]

David,

I don't know whether you were actually quoting Twelfth Night, but 
there is no doubt that Some journals are born great. Some achieve 
greatness.

The question is whether it is possible for any to have greatness 
thrust upon them. The reason I think it is, is that the circle 
you describe need not be passive and can move to OA.  I don't 
think anybody suggests that OA by itself will improve things but 
if prospective authors, editors of toll-access journals, others 
who think the toll-access journal is good agree to move 
everything to an OA journal then it could be done. If the 
movement were well organized then the NIH study section which 
includes membes of his circle would recognize the journal of high 
quality and nobody would fear for the fate of their grant 
renewal.  Why should anybody do this?  Only if they think access 
is important.

In a previous discussion, I thought the major motivation would be 
if they generalized the inconvenience they had in accessing other 
journals to the global need.  The argument was made on the list, 
however, that some patients actually look to the original 
literature for help and this is a group that might not have 
access to even big journals.  I think this is a small fraction 
but was convinced by posts in the list that they should have 
priority and so we should have some dedication to them.

Now this is at the high end.

However, big publishers do not entirely run on high end journals, 
or more precisely broadly based journals.  The proliferation of 
journals has much to do with special interest journals.  The 
service that big publishers offer is to provide a journal for the 
400 workers in something serious but of narrow focus, say 
crustacean appendages (making this up). If everybody in the field 
subscribes and a number of institutions in marine biology 
subscribe, this brings in a significant if not huge amount of 
money.  The journal Claw now provides a service but also 
guarantees that nobody working in somewhat distant fields, say 
invertebrate physiology will have easy access to a discovery on 
the periphery of their field.  What was historically a service 
becomes a disservice.  The whole operation could be done within 
OA, with the same flow of money except some savings on corporate 
profits and the need to print and mail bound copies to 
subscribers.  It requires some initiative and cooperation and 
organization among the 400 workers in the field (and the 
librarians at the marine biology institutions).  This is a real 
example, the names have been changed.

Regards, RF