John Ewing's Chronicle article echoes some of the ideas we discussed on
the "American Scientist" forum back in 1998 - not that I entirely agree
with what I said back then, but his article reminded me of the brief
scenario described at the end of the following:
http://listserver.sigmaxi.org/sc/wa.exe?A2=ind98&L=september98-forum&F=l&S=&P=3892
<quote>
If authors en masse suddenly decided to post to [Free service],
what then? I grant your assumption, and then what?
1. Peer reviewed journal subscriptions crash
2. For-profits simply raise their prices (and make out with their
3-year
contracts) while non-profits scramble.
3. Non-profits try to introduce author page charges. For-profits keep
theirs
at zero. Authors flock to for-profits for publication (the
recognition
imperative is still important) and non-profit submissions crash.
4. Non-profits turn to government funding. For-profits cry foul and
unfair competition.
5. The non-profits fold or are bought out by for-profit publishers.
6. The for-profits notice that [Free service] also is government
subsidized...
</quote>
Now both of us are with non-profit physical science publishers - perhaps
the perspective is different in other areas?
Arthur Smith (apsmith_at_aps.org)
Peter Suber wrote:
>
> This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
> (http://chronicle.com) was forwarded to you from: peters_at_earlham.edu
> [...]
>
> From the issue dated October 12, 2001
>
> No Free Lunches: We Should Resist the Push to Rush Research
> Online
>
> By JOHN H. EWING
> [...]
Received on Mon Oct 08 2001 - 21:23:55 BST