Re: Follow up of EC-commissioned "Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe"

From: David Goodman <dgoodman_at_Princeton.EDU>
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2006 20:50:52 -0400

I am glad to agree with what I think to be the core of Stevan's position:
If the publishing industry can not provide actual 100% OA, then
it is indeed time for us academics to do it by ourselves.

But what gives Stevan the idea that we will do so? Consider the
experience at the NIH. At the other end, recall that CERN, with an
absolute requirement. can not get beyond 90%, even with the librarians
doing the work when the researchers do not. Consider that even the
strongest of the mandates, the Wellcome, accepts a six month embargo.

We know that responsible scientific workers can prepare a paper for
archive-only publication as carefully as they would for conventional
publication. We know they can solicit the opinion of colleagues every
bit as effectively as responsible peer-review. We know they can organize
such archives securely and usable for both the authors and the readers.

But what is the proportion of scientists who want and need to get a paper
published, but afterwards do not really care if anyone at all ever reads it?

Authors could do it themselves, but will they? Or is that too a
speculative vision? Stevan himself calls it only an "hope."

Authors will only publish OA if OA is the single possible way
to publish. One way is 100% funding of OA journals,
which will make the publishers very happy, for it guarantees the
continuing survival of even the lowest-quality journal. The other
is the replacement of the current journal publishing system altogether.

David Goodman, Ph.D., M.L.S.
previously:
Bibliographer and Research Librarian
Princeton University Library

dgoodman_at_princeton.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
Date: Saturday, October 7, 2006 2:13 pm
Subject: Re: [AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM] Follow up of EC-commissioned "Study on the
economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe"
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
>
> There is no doubt that the research community is in a position to
> take matters entirely into its own hands: individual researchers can
> self-archive without waiting for an EU mandate (and about 15% are
> doing so). Moreover, their universities and research institutions
> can mandate
> self-archiving without waiting for an EU mandate either (and some are
> already beginning to do it). And private, national and EU research
> funders can likewise mandate self-archiving (and some are already
> beginning to do it).
>
> However, the research community needs all the help it can get in order
> to induce it to do the right thing, in its own interests (and those
> of research). Researchers needed "publish or perish" mandates from
> their institutions and funders in order to induce them to publish,
> otherwise many would have done their research, put it in a desk-
> drawer,and moved on to do their next piece of research.
> Researchers are also
> prone to a paradoxical condition I've dubbed "Zeno's Paralysis," in
> which they seem more inclined to use their fingers to do the
> keystrokesto sign declarations praising -- and petitions demanding -
> - OA than
> they are to use those same fingers to do the keystrokes required to
> actually *provide* OA -- by depositing their own research in their own
> Institutional Repositories!
> ...
> Yes, yes, one day. But 100% OA has already been fully within the
> researchcommunity's reach for over a decade now, and they still
> have not grasped
> it. OA is already long overdue, hence the time has already passed for
> sitting waiting expectantly for possible, eventual, dynamic changes
> a process might well spread to well-developed disciplines.
>
> ... But along with the visionaries, speculating about the
> possible route things might or might not take in the future, I hope
> thatthere will be a strong contingent of the experienced veterans
> who know exactly what needs to be done in order to generate 100% OA right now,
> at long last, and have long tired of waiting expectantly. That is the
> most urgent and overdue priority right now.
> ...
> (I might add that framing this whole issue as a matter of "economic
> andtechnical evolution of the scientific publication markets"
> already has
> the wrong end of the stick: The issue is the "economic and technical
> evolution of research communication in the online era"....
>
> Stevan Harnad
>
Received on Sun Oct 08 2006 - 03:48:19 BST