Subbiah Arunachalam wrote:

>Physicists were among the first to adopt the culture of archiving. their 
>central archive, arXiv, first set up at Los Alamos National Laboratory is now 
>run from Cornell University. It is serving physicists around the world for the 
>past 15 years. In our field, we do have an open access journal. But we need 
>and deserve much more. 
>  
>
Well, the first with modern technology. The spirit has been around since
the Royal Society started, but sadly the spirit was suppressed by the
need to make money to continue research. Funding, funding, funding.

"...ought to have their eyes in all parts, and to receive information
from every quarter of the earth, they ought to have a constant universal
intelligence: all discoveries should be brought to them: the Treasuries
of all former times should be laid open before them." --Sprat, History of Royal 
Society, p.20

I think that this helps you with what you are saying, and is also worth
flashing around a bit.... after all, it was the Royal Society which
brought the West from alchemy to Science. It's strange how Western
Science and Western religion always seem to be at odds.... I digress.

The real problem - the root problem here - appears to be who funds what,
and at what 'cost'. If the sponsors do not want Open Archives, and the
scientists and scholars aren't independantly wealthy, then we have a
problem.

Perhaps the case we should be making is how sponsors can get a return on
investment for allowing Open Access.

-- 
Taran Rampersad

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

http://www.linuxgazette.com
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"Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo

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