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New York Times Opinion Piece on Open Access Publishing

posted by CoolHand on Monday March 14 2016, @11:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the rip-it-open dept.

canopic jug writes:

The New York Times has an opinion piece about Open Access publishing. It starts with the case of Alexandra Elbakyan a guerilla open access activist who is on the lam from the US government acting on behalf of the copyright cartel. Pricing and other restrictions put many journals out of reach of all but the few researchers at major, well-funded universities in developed nations. The large publishing companies usually have profit margins over 30% and subscription prices have been rising twice as fast as the price of health care, which itself is priced insanely, over the past two decades, so there appears to be a real scandal there. Several options are available including pre-print repositories and various open access journals. The latter require the author to pay up front for publishing. However, the real onus lies on the communities' leaders, like heads of institutions and presidents of universities, who are in a position to change which journals are perceived as high-impact.

Edit: Alexandra Elbakyan founded Sci-Hub in 2011.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2016, @01:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2016, @01:00AM (#318293)

    Now, with your foolish and ignorant naiveté out of the way, what are your plans for reforming the absolutely broken publishing system?

    Why, by simply decreeing where one is allowed to publish, of course. It is all about freedom! My freedom; not anyone else's. If I don't like something, then we shall force others to our ways, not with incentives or reason, but force them, for we are on the side of righteousness.

    We can have the university presidents dressed up, say, in 15th century garb, with an Elsevier journal in one hand and a big, roasted turkey leg in the other, and loudly announce:

    By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways I met this journal;
    And I myself know well how troublesome it sat upon my head:
    To thee it shall descend with better quiet . . .
    . . . For all my reign hath been but a scene acting that argument; and now its death
    Changes the mode: for what in it was purchas’d,
    Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;
    So thou the PLOS One wear’st successively.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2016, @01:29AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2016, @01:29AM (#318300)

    By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways I met this journal;
    And I myself know well how troublesome it sat under my butt:

    Minor correction, as the bard intended.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 15 2016, @01:41AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 15 2016, @01:41AM (#318306) Journal

    We can have the university presidents dressed up, say, in 15th century garb, with an Elsevier journal in one hand and a big, roasted turkey leg in the other

    But... magister!... turkeys were only brought into Europe one century later [wikipedia.org].

    Did you want to say: roasted Kuzu Tandır [about.com]?

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