Re: No Free Lunches: We Should Resist the Push to Rush Research Online

From: Andrew Wray <andrew.wray_at_IOP.ORG>
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 08:42:05 +0100

Dear Stevan

But this still doesn't address the point of stable financing of the essential peer review process. This problem of stability is the main message I took from John Ewing's arcticle.

Subscriptions are a financial firewall, author charges per page or per article might work for some authors but not all, and funding by governments, science funding bodies or universities seems likely to be unsustainable in the long term (>5-10 years).

With best regards
Andrew Wray

>>> harnad_at_COGPRINTS.SOTON.AC.UK 10/08/01 11:30pm >>>
The "No Free Lunch" essay by John Ewing in the Chronicle of Higher
Education http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i07/07b01401.htm
is unfortunately yet another instance of the conflation of the essentials
with the optional add-ons (frills).

Peer review is essential. Publishers' on-paper texts, PDF, indexing, reference
links etc. are frills. The only way to test the true market value of those
frills is to stop trying to hold the refereed full-text essentials
hostage to them by force-wrapping them together into one "product."

The issue is not high vs. low journal prices, not commercial vs. noncommercial
publishers. It is about freeing the essentials from the add-on frills.

See the thread:
Distinguishing the Essentials from the Optional Add-Ons
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/1437.html

and also:

Harnad, S. (2001) Six Proposals for Freeing the Refereed Literature Ariadne 28 June 2001.
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/minotaur/#1
http://www.cogsci.s oton.ac.uk/~harnad/Tp/ariadne.htm


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NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing free
access to the refereed journal literature online is available at the
American Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01):

    http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
                            or
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html

You may join the list at the amsci site.

Discussion can be posted to:

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Received on Tue Oct 09 2001 - 11:43:16 BST

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