Re: PSP and ALPSP: j'accuse!

From: Derek Law <d.law_at_STRATH.AC.UK>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 10:19:13 +0100

Just two points to echo Les Carr.
Firstly, I think ALPSP may well have a point that we do need professional publishers who add value to the process of scholarly communication. What is less clear and is not a logical consequence is that we need the publishers we currently have.

Secondly the whole meaning of institution and internal is increasingly blurred. Many universities operate multiple campuses, often with some in different countries. In Scotland, as I suspect elsewhere, we create cross-institutional institutes to pool research strength. As far as I can tell, at any one time in excess of 5% of our academic network connections are for visiting researchers and other non-institutional affiliates of various sorts, working with our internal research groups. The links don't go when they go home. We award joint research degrees with a number of European universities. Papers with over 1000 authors have been published and the general notion of the co-laboratory working across national boundaries is now normal - and indeed a pre-requisite for things such as European funding.

In short, the institution is not a clear simple concept, nor is internal. Like much else that publishers hold dear, that world has gone.

Derek Law

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Received on Sun May 13 2007 - 11:01:59 BST