On Thu, 12 Sep 2002, Manfredi M.A La Manna wrote:
> ...I [am] delighted to confirm that ELSSS['s] first journal (in direct
> competition to an Elsevier title) will be coming out in early 2003...
>
> I have a standing bet with Stevan [Harnad] as to which strategy
> (self-archiving or ELSSS') will disseminate research IN ECONOMICS of
> the highest quality sooner. By the way, consistently with my view that
> there is no optimal/inevitable solution to scientific communication valid
> for EACH AND EVERY discipline/field, I am exploring the possibility of
> an open-access journal in a field of economics where this particular
> strategy seems to be most promising.
In case the substance of that bet was too cryptic for the uninitiated, it
is NOT a bet about whether it will be
(1) Budapest Open Access Strategy 1 (BOAI-1, author/institution
self-archiving of their own published, peer-reviewed-journal
research)
or
(2) Budapest Open Access Strategy 2 (BOAI-2, founding/converting
open-access journals)
that will be the first to reach the common BOAI goal of
open access to the peer-reviewed-journal literature:
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml .
(One could have made a bet about that, but the outcome would probably
have been that they will get there together, with perhaps an initial
head-start by BOAI-1 in terms of number of open-access articles, but
an eventual convergence with BOAI-2, as open-access itself accelerates
the conversion of toll-access journals to open-access journals, funded
up-front for their remaining essential services out of the windfall
institutional toll-access savings).
But that is NOT the substance of the bet with Manfredi! The bet is
about discipline differences in the utility of open access. Manfredi
suggests that open access is not the optimal or inevitable solution
for all disciplines. In particular, Economics, he predicts, will prefer
toll-access, but with lower tolls. The ELSSS journals (of which there
is so far one, scheduled to appear in January 2003) are not open-access
journals but (lower) toll-access journals.
It is interesting to note that Manfredi is exploring the possibility
that open access may be the most promising solution for some subfields of
Economics. I will stick to my basic contention that it is the optimal and
inevitable solution for peer-reviewed research in each and every
discipline/field...
Stevan Harnad
Received on Thu Sep 12 2002 - 14:00:28 BST