Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
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Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#2Preston McAfee (head economist at Microsoft) and Ted Bergstrom (an economist at UCSB) have been studying this for years:
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#3In our class, we have discussed repeatedly that the best way to make money would be to start a new journal with the word "International" in it. The problem with some open access journals is that they accept anything. Apart from Computer Science(and physics as mentioned in the article), where most papers can be found as open access, there isn't an alternative for universities to buying content, even if open access were to be the new norm from now due to large amount of historical content.
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#4In our class, we have discussed repeatedly that the best way to make money would be to start a new journal with the word "International" in it. The problem with some open access journals is that they accept anything. Apart from Computer Science(and physics as mentioned in the article), where most papers can be found as open access, there isn't an alternative for universities to buying content, even if open access wer…
Is this really a problem that universities or governments could not solve on their own. Ideally an educational institution, or a syndicate of them should run academic journals on a non-profit basis, period. They are the users of this, they are best qualified to know how to actually keep a certain level of quality.
That being said academia these days is full of shit anyhow. So quality of the publications reflects the quality of the institution.
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#5The researchers themselves should take more action, plainly refuse to cooperate with publishing companies and establish an independent publication system on universities' or grant agencies' websites. Sadly, most researchers, with exceptions, seem to not care that they contribute perpetuating this absurd money redirection scheme that hurts the society and its benefit from public-funded research. This is probably also because similarly to the publishers, they are benefiting from the scheme as well - a publication with the right journal is "the way" to make researchers' career, get higher social status and earn more money. The most successful then end up in the editorial boards of those journals :(
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#6Tim Gowers (and several other mathematicians) called to boycott academic publishers with The Cost of Knowledge (http://thecostofknowledge.com/), giving largely similar reasons. It had some success if I recall correctly.
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#7The researchers themselves should take more action, plainly refuse to cooperate with publishing companies and establish an independent publication system on universities' or grant agencies' websites. Sadly, most researchers, with exceptions, seem to not care that they contribute perpetuating this absurd money redirection scheme that hurts the society and its benefit from public-funded research. This is probably also…
You know that tenure depends on publications, don't you? At Cornell or Dartmouth "publications" means JACS, Angewandte or suchlike, but at Tumbleweed State College they don't care. The problem is now reduced to reforming the tenure system at non-top-25 colleges.
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#8Tim Gowers (and several other mathematicians) called to boycott academic publishers with The Cost of Knowledge ( http://thecostofknowledge.com/ ), giving largely similar reasons. It had some success if I recall correctly.
Seems that a library boycott might be more effective.
Announce a policy: "We will be reducing our purchase of proprietary journals by 10% per year over the next decade. We will be shifting holdings to journals published under free and open terms."
If that message comes from enough premier libraries, the market will shift.
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#9The researchers themselves should take more action, plainly refuse to cooperate with publishing companies and establish an independent publication system on universities' or grant agencies' websites. Sadly, most researchers, with exceptions, seem to not care that they contribute perpetuating this absurd money redirection scheme that hurts the society and its benefit from public-funded research. This is probably also…
I think there are two challenges here. First, opting out of major publication venues is essentially sacrificing your career (no funding/tenure). Second, researchers simply don't have free time to start up an alternative publication system. I think the funding agencies can do a lot more here though...
Re: Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke
#10The researchers themselves should take more action, plainly refuse to cooperate with publishing companies and establish an independent publication system on universities' or grant agencies' websites. Sadly, most researchers, with exceptions, seem to not care that they contribute perpetuating this absurd money redirection scheme that hurts the society and its benefit from public-funded research. This is probably also…
I think there are two challenges here. First, opting out of major publication venues is essentially sacrificing your career (no funding/tenure). Second, researchers simply don't have free time to start up an alternative publication system. I think the funding agencies can do a lot more here though...
OTOH, if everyone who had tenure already cooperated then they would wield considerable power at low risk.