[Sigia-l] Is Google Threatening? (was Google vs. Knowledge Management)

[Listera]

"Laura Norvig" wrote:

> Many prestigious, peer-reviewed journals do not offer their content
> free on the web. 

Here's another take on the *future*:

The revolution in biomedical publishing is just a mouse click away.

With the recent creation of such online publishing initiatives as BioMed
Central, PubMed Central, and CrossRef, researchers and clinicians have less
costly and more immediate access to research articles. But this newfound
freedom of access to biomedical information has raised critical questions
for scientific publishers and their readers. Among them are whether research
published online should be available at no cost and how that research should
be peer-reviewed. Scientific and medical associations that currently publish
paper-based journals also face important issues regarding shifting sources
of revenue as free or low-cost electronic access competes with traditional
subscription and distribution systems.

"It's easy to be frightened about what's happening through the Internet in
many disciplines, and this could happen in science, too. We should not be
naive about this," said Harold Varmus, MD, president of Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. As the former director of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), Varmus helped create PubMed Central, the
NIH-supported repository for peer-reviewed research in the life sciences.

Publishers Debate Future of Online Journals
<http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n8/ffull/jmn0823-1.html>
Also:
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C14FA385E0C718DDDA10894DA
404482>

I'm sure you aware of all the efforts to bring this antiquated niche into
the 21st century. There's little doubt in my mind this is the future trend.
 
> I would say that, although there are many deep, knowledgeable
> articles that can be found through a google search, there are a
> greater number that cannot be found (or perhaps the citation can be
> found, but not the content).

Fair enough. But that's not a failing of the approach/technology; merely a
matter of (IP) access. There's absolutely nothing technical that would
prevent some tool like Google to break open that process, if the content is
allowed to be parsed. And that is just a matter of time. If you can prove,
say in five years, that this is not the future trend, then I'll eat whatever
paper-based journal you choose.

Best,

Ziya