Siddhartha Basu
Thu, 13 Feb 2003 09:18:00 -0800
Hi kaushik, Nice post. Being a researcher in biology i really appreciate and understand the publication scenario you have protrayed. In fact, because of the high cost of some premier journals it really tough to access them in time though they have got online version. Back in india i have to wait for print version to arrive in library. I do support the motion of free journal and i think pubmedcentral is doing a great job in this regard.
bye siddhartha --- Kaushik Ghose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > some quick comments from an academic > > 1. As far as I know, in academia, promotions are > linked to publications > everywhere. In some fields, like engineering, > conference proceedings count > as pubs, but in others, like biology, not really. > This is not a exclusive western phenomenon. > > In some places, like Germany, people don't publish > so much as in the US, > there is more of an informal review of your research > abilities via a > document you produce (something like a thesis, I > think they call it a > habilitation). There are merits and demerits to that > system too (as in, > well if they do so much good reasearch in Germany as > they claim when are > they gonna share it with the rest of us :) ) > > The merits and demerits of this method requires its > own mailing list (!) > but I like the quote "not everything that counts can > be counted > and not everything that can be counted, counts" > > 2. The core point of the problem is not the software > but rather "trust" or > "goodwill" in the social sense. > If I have 30 publications in some journal that I > happen to edit it may not > count as much as 2 pubs in Nature (for my field at > least) > > You can distribute a journal online free of cost : > The Journal of > neuroscience is an example > > http://www.jneurosci.org/ > > Look at http://highwire.stanford.edu/ for other free > journals. > > but it takes time to build trust "that is a good > journal", "that is not a > good journal", often based on citation (cross > referencing stats). Again - > the merits and demerits of this requires its own > list. > > So one argument is that these publishers are > charging money for the > "trust" they have tried to build up by managing the > journals they publish > over 30-40 years. > > Again, it is possible, as in the journal of > neuroscience, to build this > trust without charging the public. > > I'm all for free journals - this is not like > literary work where the > author get paid for the work - in fact if you write > too much (like I'm doing here) > you may have to pay page charges ! > > And the future is headed towards electronic > publishing - its quick, you > can add effects like hyper linking/animations etc. > and distribution is > cheaper (in the long run) and it takes up much less > space that bulky paper > journals. > > I would like to think the excessive costs of some > big pub houses are a > last gasp of outdated behemoths :) > > -kg > > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the body > "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. > FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3 ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3