RE: Tenure and journals (RE: Elsevier profit)

["Peter Picerno" <ppicerno@nova.edu>]

"the other academics argued that we must buy those journals, because they
are the top journals of our field.  Some of my colleagues were on the
editorial boards of those very journals." --

BINGO! This says it all ... the people who promote publication,
publication in 'top' journals, and who make promotion and tenure decisions
are very often the same people who sit on editorial boards for these
journals. This is not *all* of the problem, certainly, but it certainly
has an impact on the problem. One could argue that there is a certain
amount of vested interest exhibited here.

Peter Picerno

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu]On Behalf Of Fytton Rowland
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 5:41 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Tenure and journals (RE: Elsevier profit)

This is about the authorship end of the process, not the library purchase
end - one of the key problems that reformers of the scientific
communication process have always faced is the lack of linkage between the
two that exists within institutions.

It is the academic leadership of the university (specifically, in our
case, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research) who insists on publication in
the leading journals.  If open access journals had the impact factor I
don't suppose he'd mind us using them, but they don't, do they?  It is a
chicken-and-egg problem.

Meanwhile, it is the University Librarian, guided by advice from academic
departments, who decides what journals (or big deals) to buy.  I don't
think she "happily" pays the high prices involved!  Within the Information
Science department I tried to argue, some years ago, that the dept should
ask the Librarian to cut some exorbitantly priced journals in our field.
I was in a minority of one - the other academics argued that we must buy
those journals, because they are the top journals of our field.  Some of
my colleagues were on the editorial boards of those very journals.  I
imagine most universities are still like this.

Fytton.