From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/6854 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Vaughan Pratt Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: science_publishers Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:24:50 -0700 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Vaughan Pratt NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1314991388 29439 80.91.229.12 (2 Sep 2011 19:23:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 19:23:08 +0000 (UTC) To: Categories Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Fri Sep 02 21:23:04 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtpy.mta.ca ([138.73.1.128]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QzZKQ-0003pN-I5 for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:23:02 +0200 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:45947) by smtpy.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1QzZIZ-0002M2-Tz; Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:21:07 -0300 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QzZIZ-0006TI-9L for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:21:07 -0300 In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:6854 Archived-At: 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 > [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]