There is a video clearly explaining the case for Open Access to research journals. It is illustrated by Ph.D comics. I thank Tony Wright for bringing it to my attention.
A previous post The insatiable greed of commercial journals discussed some of relevant political background in the USA.
To curtail the influence the role of commercial journals, I think the least we can do is aim to mostly publish in journals run by professional societies such as American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society.
I also think research groups should be putting their "raw" research data sets online so others can analyse them independently.
I welcome comments.
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I agree with you that publishing in professional societies is a better option they are non-profit organizations. However - at least in the case of the ACS - I really don't think they behave much like non-profit organizations:
ReplyDelete1. The ACS also greedy
2. Treat their customers with disdain
3. A sizeable part of the profits are used for things like law-suits
I've started to publish as much as possible in PLoS ONE - one of the few publishers with the heart in roughly the right place.
Don't get me wrong though, choosing ACS over, say, Elsevier is definitely a step in the right direction.
Jan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
I looked at the blog posts you recommended about ACS.
They are illuminating and discouraging.
ACS also hates the arXiv. If you put your paper there ACS wont publish it.
Actually, the ACS journals I have contacted so far have been OK with it. However, they certainly don't advertise the fact in any way - on the contrary. Strange for a society whose stated mission is, in part, "to increase and diffuse chemical knowledge"
ReplyDelete