How one can interpret what others say! I understood Kimmo Kuusela to say
that (a) the number of journals was not known, (b) the taxpayer (the
Government) subsidized the professional societies, and (c) they were all in
Finnish without multi-lingual support and therefore had a closed market.
There did not appear to be a public funds subsidization evident, though this
may be evident in a socialist society.
My conclusion is that in Finland there may be no journals subsidized by
public funds, any more than any university or professional society anywhere
in the world provides unpaid help to the scholarly publishing process.
This whole activity is so unproductive that I appeal to Jean-Claude to
abandon it. It is only resulting on highly shonky data, which I would not
rely on (and if I were ever asked to referee would immediately reject). It
wastes my time and that of others on this list.
Arthur Sale
Professor of Computing (Research)
University of Tasmania
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-
> ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG] On Behalf Of Jean-Claude Guédon
> Sent: Thursday, 29 September 2005 04:40
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: Further precisions on the Finnish situation
>
> A wonderful reader ofthis list has been kind enough to retreve the
> following precise informaiton for all of us. May he be warmly thanked
> here.
>
> Here are the further details:
>
> Hello again, I'll try to be more precise now.
> >
> > Total number of journals published by scientific societies in 2004: 112
> >
> > Of which:
> > -- refereed journals: 72
> > -- published in co-operation with other Nordic countries' societies: 4
> > (all in English)
> > -- popularized: 15
> > -- professional: 10
> > -- hobbyist (?): 5
> > -- newsletter: 6
> >
> > Language distribution of the 72 refereed journals:
> >
> > Finnish or Swedish or mix of both: 52
> > English: 19
> > Other: 1
> >
> > Source (in Finnish): Eeva-Liisa Aalto, "Publishing Activities of the
> > Scientific Societies", 17.9.2004:
> > http://www.tsv.fi/vaihtok/ajank/vkseminaari/aalto.pdf
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Kimmo Kuusela
>
> Coupling this information with the earlier information we received from
> the Academy, this means that all 112 journals are subsidized; that 72 of
> them are peer reviewed and that, in Finland, 100% of Finnish scholarly
> journals are subsidized. In fact, subsidies reach beyond peer reviewed
> publications by scientific associations.
>
> I have not commented yet on the Indian situation which seems to
> demonstrate a very heavy proportion of subsidized publications as well.
> I will when the image becomes clearer.
>
> Meanwhile, we can see that for the moment, few countries can claim not
> to subsidize any scholarly/scientific journals. Australia seems to stand
> in that position. I am checking on this. The other big exception is the
> United States where subsidized scholarly journals do not seem to be in
> great numbers.
>
> Mandating subsidized scholarly journals appears to touch an ever more
> significant collection of publications.
>
> If other readers have information from other national situations, even
> in rough terms, this will be deeply appreciated.
>
> Many thanks for the collaborative spirit that seems to be building up on
> this issue. This is distributed intelligence at its best.
>
> Jean-Claude Guédon
>
>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Jean-Claude Guédon
> Dept. of Comparative Literature
> University of Montreal
> PO Box 6128, Downtown Branch
> Montreal, QC H3C 3J7
> Canada
Received on Sat Oct 01 2005 - 07:50:23 BST