Re: science_publishers

[Vaughan Pratt <pratt@cs.stanford.edu>]

The solution of authors voting with their feet is a very long-term one
which does not address what's already in the literature but currently
behind a paywall.

Furthermore the authors with the highest impact are also the ones most
likely to operate in a community all of whose members belong to
institutions with subscriptions.  Some of them (I have no idea what
fraction) may even prefer the additional ivory-tower isolation provided
by paywalls, so as not to have deal with outsiders, and many more will
not be strongly motivated to change the status quo.  I recall a meeting
a few years ago at which Andy Odlyzko, who'd looked into the problem in
some detail, offered economic reasons for why the status quo was hard to
change, though I don't recall any calibration by him on where to draw
the line at gouging.

This issue has a particularly large impact on the current hot-button
topic of global warming, where there are a lot of technically minded
people without access to the relevant technical journals being cited on
blogs by people on either side of the debate who do have access.
Many of you will have noticed that a widespread feeling, particularly
strong in the US and Australia, has been developing lately that there's
a conspiracy between governments and scientists to tamper with the free
market economy by inappropriately steering funding towards alternative
energy proponents and providers.  Locking influential articles behind a
paywall has the unfortunate side effect of amplifying this feeling.

For that and other hot-button topics (vaccination and autism, aluminium
and Alzheimer's, safety of nanotechnology, etc.), a more immediate and
reliable solution would be welcome, in addition to the solution of
voting with your feet.

The problem is not merely academic, it's also a serious social problem.

Vaughan Pratt

On 9/1/2011 7:11 AM, Mike Stay wrote:
> Another page with the same viewpoint:
> http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/journals.html
>

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