Public awareness of the OA movement

Fri Aug 24 18:31:35 EDT 2012

You may be right with regard to the appropriateness of my remarks to
Sigmetrics, but I was reacting to our colleague Leydesdorff's remarks.
Maybe were all out of bounds.

As for mandatory green OA to be theft, this is the kind of inflammatory
vocabulary best avoided in civilized discussions.

Jean-Claude Guédon

Le vendredi 24 août 2012 à 11:48 -0400, David Wojick a écrit :
> I am not sure this is a sigmetrics issue.  A good publisher discussion
> is at http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/ where I have several posts,
> among many others.
> 
> 
> I regard mandatory green OA as theft.
> 
> 
> David
> 
> 
> sent from my iPhone 
> 
> On Aug 24, 2012, at 10:30 AM, Jean-Claude Guédon
> <jean.claude.guedon at UMONTREAL.CA> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
> > http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html The "OA idea" is much
> > broader than the "author-pay" approach. Confusing OA or even "Gold
> > OA" with the author-pay financial scheme is one of the most common
> > mistakes people make about open access. See Peter Suber's recent
> > book, Open Access, on this topic.
> > 
> > Not only does the "OA idea" include the "Green road", as Loet
> > Leydesdorff acknowledges at the end of his message, but it also
> > includes many journals that are sufficiently subsidized to provide
> > gratis access to author submissions, and "libre" (or at least
> > gratis) access to readers.
> > 
> > As for the power shift, it is a possibility, but, generally,
> > speaking, open access tends to nudge publishing instruments into the
> > service of scientific communication, rather than the reverse.
> > 
> > Finally, the selection of papers in the present journal system is
> > not limited to quality; it also includes considerations for various
> > degrees of relevance to various criteria such as "hotness" of a
> > topic, prestige of the originating lab or institution, etc. For
> > example, the existence of "orphan diseases" can be explained in part
> > because of latent selection criteria that do not relate to quality,
> > but rather to visibility and prestige. PLoS  One, by contrast,
> > offers a good example of a publishing platform where the only
> > criteria used are respect of the scientific method in all of its
> > dimensions. The conclusion is that the present system is far from
> > being purely guided by quality. And designing a selection process
> > guided by quality within the OA context does not appear particularly
> > difficult to achieve. It already exists.
> > 
> > Jean-Claude Guédon
> > 
> > Le vendredi 24 août 2012 à 07:42 +0200, Loet Leydesdorff a écrit :
> > 
> > > Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
> > > http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html 
> > > Dear Subbiah, 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > Originally I was enthusiast about the OA idea, but more recently
> > > two things happened which made me aware that there are
> > > disadvantages which tend to turn my opinion around. First, I met
> > > an editor of an established journal in the social sciences who had
> > > discussed this at length with the publishing house and they had
> > > decided not to move in this direction because young scholars in
> > > his country would not always have the funding to pay the author
> > > fees or they would have to sacrifice other research expenses (such
> > > as conferences). He (and I agreed) found it more important that
> > > there would be no financial thresholds to contributing to
> > > scholarly discourse. (I know that it is never for free, but this
> > > adds easily a thousand dollar to the expenses).
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > Secondly, I became aware that the funding agencies in my (and
> > > other) country are actively championing for OA. Of course, OA
> > > shifts power balance into their direction. A lab group in the
> > > medical sciences, for example, easily publishes 25 papers/year and
> > > this would add appr. 25k to their budget. In the social sciences
> > > smaller amounts of money are already substantial (and thus issues
> > > of policy making and research management). Those without an
> > > institutional affiliation (such as some PhD students and retired
> > > scholars) may be excluded from access to publishing. When there is
> > > much demand the agencies (and universities) may under pressure to
> > > develop policies on who can be granted publication and who not.
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > Let me hasten to add that I several times received a generous
> > > contribution from a funding agency for publishing a book in
> > > non-English languages. (I had not expected that.) In summary, it
> > > seems better to me that Editors and referees decide on who can
> > > publish for intellectual reasons rather than funding agencies for
> > > (potentially) policy reasons. 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > #Steve: I am aware that institutional repositories is very
> > > different issue.
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > Best wishes,
> > > 
> > > Loet
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > 
> > >                                  
> > > __________________________________________________________________
> > > 
> > > Loet Leydesdorff 
> > > 
> > > Professor, University of Amsterdam
> > > Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), 
> > > Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam. 
> > > Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-842239111
> > > loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/ ;
> > > http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics
> > > [mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of Subbiah
> > > Arunachalam
> > > Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 3:32 AM
> > > To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
> > > Subject: [SIGMETRICS] Public awareness of the OA movement
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
> > > http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html 
> > > 
> > > Friends:
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Please see the Economist debate on academic journals
> > > [http://www.economist.com/economist-asks/do-fee-charging-academic-journals-offer-value-added-0?sort=2#sort-comments.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > It has not attracted many comments from readers - a clear
> > > indication that the general public (at least the segment that
> > > reads high quality news channels like The Economist) is least
> > > interested in, if not indifferent to, what we consider is of
> > > paramount importance. All our advocacy has not reached them. I
> > > think, instead of spending our time talking about refining and
> > > redefining the most appropriate way to bring about universal open
> > > access amongst ourselves (and that too with some amount of
> > > rancour) we should devote our attention now to take the message to
> > > the citizenry at large. We should promote Students for OA,
> > > Alliance of Taxpayers for OA and similar initiatives in a large
> > > scale. In the end, public awareness and taxpayer acceptance are
> > > the keys to the success of the OA movement.
> > > 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Regards.
> > > 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Arun  
> > > 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > 
> > > 
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