RE: In the news (Georgia State)

["Ian.Russell" <ian.russell@cytherean.co.uk>]

This is indeed an interesting post.

This segues into a parallel discussion and I'd like to point out 
to Thomas Krichel and others that SISSA found JHEP to expensive 
to operate as an open access journal and so to support the 
activity partnered with Institute of Physics Publishing to 
implement a subscription model for the journal to secure its 
future.

So presumably this is one of the journals that Thomas recommends 
librarians to cancel?

Ian Russell, ALPSP

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-liblicense-
> l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Ann Okerson
> Sent: 20 April 2008 20:48
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Re: In the news (Georgia State)
>
> Paul and all:  With respect to (not) compensating peer reviewers,
> I was surprised that Enrico Balli's (SISSA) message of 3/27
> apparently went by without comment. I'm reproducing it here and
> wondering what reaction readers have to SISSA's plan.  Ann
> Okerson
>
> ******
>
> From: Enrico M. Balli <enrico@medialab.sissa.it>
> Date: Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 8:36 PM
> Subject: R: Rewarding reviewers
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>
> The real value of scientific journals today is the peer-review
> processing. Indeed, the development of the electronic archives
> has diminished the importance of the scientific journals as
> conveyors of information, as they are no longer the main sources
> of scientific information. Keeping in mind these facts, SISSA
> started several years ago JHEP, the Journal of High Energy
> Physics, which is now among the journals with the highest impact
> factor in his field. We believe that the main reason for this
> success of our journal is the high quality of the peer-review
> process.
>
> Given that peer review is the most valuable asset of journals, in
> the spirit that scientific work should be remunerated, we have
> decided to allocate funds for this purpose and to pay a token fee
> for every referee report beginning in 2008. We strongly feel that
> this new practice in the policy of scientific journals is the
> right step on the way to further improve the quality of our peer
> review process.
>
> Enrico M. Balli
> Sissa Medialab
> Via L. Stock 2/2, 34135 Trieste
> T. +39-040-3787620
> F. +39-040-3787615
>
>
> On Fri, 18 Apr 2008, Paul N. Courant wrote:
>
>> I love the idea that, in Joe's words, " ... we will see an increasing
>> amount of activity in this area, as the larger research universities
>> (the primary creators of intellectual property) express resentment in a
>> multitude of ways for not being compensated for their research and
>> publishing activities."
>>
>> It would be wonderful if large research universities would express this
>> resentment to the commercial and nominally nonprofit publishers that get
>> their content and reviewing services from faculty and research scholars
>> who are paid by universities.  So far, I don't see it, but we can hope.
>> Of course, in the this formulation the problem facing research
>> universities lies with publishers (some, not all) and not with the likes
>> of Georgia State.
>>
>> Paul N. Courant
>> University Librarian and Dean of Libraries
>> Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy
>> Professor of Economics and of Information
>> The University of Michigan
>> 734-764-9356