- Aug 11, 2005
- 29,180
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...e-so-you-can-read-them-for-free-a6964176.html
In many ways, academia has itself to blame for its dilemma. Higher education is a publish-or-perish world in which administrators judge professors based on their scholarly output, basically outsourcing the validation of a scholar’s worth. That gives journals enormous intrinsic value, if not to society then to academics themselves. Brands such as the Academy of Management Annals and the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics matter.
Researchers sign over the copyright and provide their work, often taxpayer funded, free to publishers who then get other researchers to review the papers — also free. The publishers then sell journal subscriptions — some titles cost more than $5,000 a year — back to universities and the federal government. And if someone wants an article, that costs about $35, so that person is paying for the research and to read the results.
“That means that I, as a taxpayer, (am) paying for the research and paying again for the benefit of reading it,” a man who identified himself as John Dowd wrote to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as part of a forum on public access. “This seems patently unfair.”
Perhaps it's time to reform this industry, sounds like they get paid quite a lot of money (Industry is worth 10 billion i believe) for little service/value added. Any other thoughts?
/edit meant for title to say Scholar version of Napster but i'm still not awake
In many ways, academia has itself to blame for its dilemma. Higher education is a publish-or-perish world in which administrators judge professors based on their scholarly output, basically outsourcing the validation of a scholar’s worth. That gives journals enormous intrinsic value, if not to society then to academics themselves. Brands such as the Academy of Management Annals and the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics matter.
Researchers sign over the copyright and provide their work, often taxpayer funded, free to publishers who then get other researchers to review the papers — also free. The publishers then sell journal subscriptions — some titles cost more than $5,000 a year — back to universities and the federal government. And if someone wants an article, that costs about $35, so that person is paying for the research and to read the results.
“That means that I, as a taxpayer, (am) paying for the research and paying again for the benefit of reading it,” a man who identified himself as John Dowd wrote to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as part of a forum on public access. “This seems patently unfair.”
Perhaps it's time to reform this industry, sounds like they get paid quite a lot of money (Industry is worth 10 billion i believe) for little service/value added. Any other thoughts?
/edit meant for title to say Scholar version of Napster but i'm still not awake
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