"Publish or Perish" awarded Euroscience Open Forum Poetry Prize

[Stevan Harnad]

               ** Apologies for Cross-Posting"

The following poem, "Publish or Perish," has won the (English-language
category) prize in the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF2006) Poetry
Competition, sponsored by the Adrian von Braun Stiftung.

    http://www.esof2006.org/about.php4
    http://www.esof2006.org/blog_send-content.php4?ID=11&what=News

The award of 300 euros has been donated by the author to the Alliance
for Tax-Payer Access http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/ in support of their
efforts to promote the adoption of the Federal Research Public Access
Act (FRPAA) in the US: With UK OA now well on its way, let Euroscience
and euros now reach across the Atlantic to help spread OA to the entire
planet...

            Publish or Perish
            Stevan Harnad

        As Science is mere structured common sense,
        her means but trial-and-error made intense,
        the only virtue setting her apart,
        and raising her above (some think) mere Art,
            is her convergence ever on consensus:
            collective, self-corrective her defenses.
        A flagellant, she boldly does defy
        Reality her schemes to falsify.

        And yet this noble jousting were in vain,
        and all this pain would yield no grain of gain
            if Science were content, a shrinking violet,
            her works from all the world 'ere to keep private.
            Instead, performance public and artistic,
            restraining all propensities autistic,
        perhaps less out of error-making dread,
        than banal need to earn her daily bread.

        For showbiz being what it is today,
        work's not enough, you've got to make it pay.
            What ratings, sweeps and polls count for our actors,
            no less than our elected benefactors,
            for Science the commensurate equation
            is not just publication but citation.
        The more your work is accessed, read and used,
        the higher then is reckoned its just dues.
            Sounds crass, but there may be some consolation,
            where there's still some residual motivation
        to make a difference, not just make a fee:
        the World Wide Web at last can make Science free.

http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CAA38.htm
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/112-guid.html

Stevan Harnad