RE: Q 1. on OA

["Lisa Dittrich" <lrdittrich@aamc.org>]

Yes--our journal "benefits" only in the sense that any income we make
somewhat offsets our associations significant investment in the costs of
running our journal (and we are now published--but not owned--by a
commercial publisher).  We provide excellent services to our authors
(who routinely praise us for the substantive editing we do) and keep our
subscription prices low.  We charge no authors fees, and few of our
authors are subsidized by grants from the government or anyone else. 
They therefore would likely balk at being charged any kind of fee should
we move to all OA.  Should we move to OA, my guess is that our
association would (reasonably) decide that we should simply let the
publisher take over all copyediting (which they do a rather poor job of)
and that I let go of many of the high-quality dedicated staff members
who have contributed to making our journal the high-quality journal it
has become over the course of the past 17 or so years (in the name of
cost savings, since they would completely subsidize the journal).  You
might say this is the cost of the "greater good."

I say if I want quality, I pay for quality.  If an artist writes a novel
or paints a painting using funding from a government arts agency, I
don't think I should get that work for free.  You might argue that,
well, the journal is "stealing" the researchers' works.  Well, no--I and
my staff are adding value that costs time and money, too, for which we
deserve compensation.

Why no one seems to get this is beyond me.  Let researchers post their
research to blogs if free and fast access is all that is needed.  If
what journals add is so worthless and if we are so evil, then let us die
off.

anyway, to return to your original question--we make no profit.  And I,
as managing editor and speaking only for myself and not for my
association, am entirely opposed to OA.

Lisa


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Richard Feinman
Sent: Fri 6/16/2006 8:24 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Q 1. on OA

Is there anyone who is opposed to OA who does not benefit 
financially from the current system?

Richard D. Feinman, Professor of Biochemistry