Refereed Journal Publishing

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Forwarded to liblicense-l
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>From harnad@coglit.ecs.soton.ac.uk Sun Jun 18 06:11:08 2000
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 11:14:37 +0100 (BST)
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad@coglit.ecs.soton.ac.uk>
To: september98-forum@amsci-forum.amsci.org
cc: Elib List EJ <lis-elib@mailbase.ac.uk>,
        Lib Serials list <serialst@LIST.UVM.EDU>, VPIEJ-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU,
        liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject:  Refereed Journal publishing 

    [The following concerns refereed research report publication.]

What is wrong with the following picture?

    (1) A brand-new PhD recipient proudly tells his mother he has just
    published his first article. She asks him how much he was paid for
    it. He makes a face and tells her "nothing," and then begins a long
    complicated explanation.

    (2) A fellow-researcher at that same university sees a reference to
    that same article. He goes to their library to get it: It's not
    subscribed to here; can't afford that journal; subscription budget
    already overspent.

    (3) An undergraduate, same university, sees the same article
    cited on the Web; clicks on it. The publisher's website demands a
    password: only paid subscribing institutions can have access. 

    (4) The undergraduate loses patience, gets bored, and clicks on
    napster to grab an MP3 file of his favorite bootleg music CD to
    console him in his sorrows.

    (5) Years later, the same PhD is being considered for tenure; his
    publications are good, but they're not cited enough; they have not
    made enough of a research impact. Tenure denied.

    (6) Same thing happens when he tries to get a research grant: his
    research findings have not had enough of an impact: not enough
    researchers have read and cited them.

    (7) He decides to write a book instead. Publisher declines to
    publish it: It wouldn't sell enough copies because not enough
    universities have enough money to pay for it -- their purchasing
    budgets are tied up paying for their inflating annual journal
    subscription costs.

    (8) He tries to put his articles up on the Web, free for all, to
    increase their impact; his publisher threatens to sue him for
    violation of copyright.

    (9) He asks his publisher who the copyright is intended to protect.

    (10) His publisher replies: You! 

What is wrong with this picture? (And why is the mother of the PhD whose
give-away work people cannot steal, even though he wants them to, in the
same boat as the mother of the recording artist whose non-give-away work
they can and do steal, even though he does not want them to?)

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Stevan Harnad                     harnad@cogsci.soton.ac.uk
Professor of Cognitive Science    harnad@princeton.edu
Department of Electronics and     phone: +44 23-80 592-582
             Computer Science     fax:   +44 23-80 592-865
University of Southampton         http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/
Highfield, Southampton            http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM           
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NOTE: A complete archive of this ongoing discussion of providing free
access to the refereed journal literature is available at the American
Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00):

    http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/september98-forum.html

You may join the list at the site above.

Discussion can be posted to:

    september98-forum@amsci-forum.amsci.org