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Max Planck Society Discontinues Agreement with Elsevier

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Re: Max Planck Society Discontinues Agreement with Elsevier

#3

Post by Vinnl »

I'd encourage all active researchers who support the move to open access to sign the following petition: http://michaeleisen.org/petition/

It basically tells funders that you support them to negotiate better open access deals, even if that risks limiting the number of venues you can publish in.

Re: Max Planck Society Discontinues Agreement with Elsevier

#5

Post by sleavey »

wetpaws wrote: post #2

Every nail in Elsevier coffin is a great news, paywaled scientific publications is an archaic, dystopian and shameful legacy that should never exist in a first place.

I agree with the sentiment but I do think the service journals provide was once worthwhile, before the web, as disseminaters of academic knowledge. Universities paid a subscription fee for physical copies of journals, allowing their employees to keep up to date with what was happening in the world of science. Once the web took off the proposition was no longer good value, as scientists could bypass publishers. It just took two decades for academia to change the habit of a century.

Re: Max Planck Society Discontinues Agreement with Elsevier

#6

Post by sleavey »

IshKebab wrote: post #4

> Researchers at the 200 institutions supporting the DEAL negotiations have consequently foregone access to the Elsevier platform and are broadly making use of alternative routes for their research needs. I wonder what "alternative routes" those are... /s

In many cases the library service of these institutions can still obtain copies of journal articles via inter-library lending or individual purchases. Yes, researchers will probably bypass this and use Sci-Hub simply because it's quicker, but Elsevier can't argue that universities expect researchers to obtain Elsevier journal articles illegally.

Re: Max Planck Society Discontinues Agreement with Elsevier

#8

Post by AstralStorm »

sleavey wrote: post #5
wetpaws wrote: post #2

Every nail in Elsevier coffin is a great news, paywaled scientific publications is an archaic, dystopian and shameful legacy that should never exist in a first place.

I agree with the sentiment but I do think the service journals provide was once worthwhile, before the web, as disseminaters of academic knowledge. Universities paid a subscription fee for physical copies of journals, allowing their employees to keep up to date with what was happening in the world of science. Once the web took off the proposition was no longer good value, as scientists could bypass publishers. It jus…

The proposition is still ok value if not too expensive - collated and vetted research reviews are highly valuable. Such as some journals and annals.

However, preventing anyone else from creating them or running their own analysis via exclusivity and access pricing is just selfish and stifling.

Re: Max Planck Society Discontinues Agreement with Elsevier

#9

Post by mirimir »

sleavey wrote: post #5
wetpaws wrote: post #2

Every nail in Elsevier coffin is a great news, paywaled scientific publications is an archaic, dystopian and shameful legacy that should never exist in a first place.

I agree with the sentiment but I do think the service journals provide was once worthwhile, before the web, as disseminaters of academic knowledge. Universities paid a subscription fee for physical copies of journals, allowing their employees to keep up to date with what was happening in the world of science. Once the web took off the proposition was no longer good value, as scientists could bypass publishers. It jus…

There's more to it than that. Elsevier etc are just bleeding out the academic publishing business. Just like Alden Global Capital has been bleeding out The Denver Post and many other newspapers.
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