This discussion presents an over-simplified binary opposition:
1) Group 1: academics who want to give their scholarly journal work away
2) Group 2: publishers who want to earn money from the sales of
scholarly journals
There is a third path, however:
3) Group 3: academics who (noting those 40%+ operating profits achieved
by some major academic journal publishers) would like to be paid for
their scholarly journal papers. These academics do not feel that they
are satisfactorily and sufficiently compensated by research grants,
tenure and the joy of communication.
I am not offering this observation as a proponent of Group 3, but
because the discussion is incomplete without reference to those who
would go along with the status quo, provided they get a cut. Group 3 is
not as organised, vociferous and iconoclastic as Group 1 but could
represent a greater long-term economic threat to Group 2, because they
don't need to smash the business models altogether.
Chris Zielinski
Consultant, Informania Ltd.
18 Monks Orchard, Petersfield, Hants GU32 2JD, United Kingdom
e-mail: informania_at_supanet.com web site:
http://www.iwsp.org
Received on Sat Apr 13 2002 - 21:59:08 BST