Re: Gowers petition against Elsevier

[Robert Seely <rags@math.mcgill.ca>]

> [ Note from moderator: While interesting, this thread is off-topic and
> list policy does not allow for discussion. Posts sent after tomorrow will
> not be forwarded. Thanks. ]

Indeed - for the most part, discussion on this list does seem to be
preaching to the choir.  Thanks in large part to the efforts of the
moderator of this list (and others), the categorical community is well
placed online - TAC, this list, arXive, nLab, and many many homepages.
It's rare (in my experience, at least) to look for a paper one wants,
and not to find it online.

SO: to all those out there who are in a position of some influence,
your task, should you choose to accept it, is to "move" deans (and
tenure committees, hiring committees, promotion committees, etc) to
accept on-line journal publications, to encourage other "independant"
journals (such as those published by professional associations) to
flourish, to establish new quality journals (sponsored by
universities, eg), to decouple the notions of "impact" (as measured by
indices) and "excellence", and whatever other measures that might
dislodge the seeming monopoly of the big 2 (3?) publishers.  Everyone
would benefit (except those publishers), so the trick is to convince
others, beyond this small community, of that.

We've had this discussion many times before - it'd be nice if the next
time we do, things have measurably improved ...

-= rags =-


-- 
<rags@math.mcgill.ca>
<www.math.mcgill.ca/rags>


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