That works fine for what I assume is a regional society in a rich country, but the critical issue raised by Werner is what happens with international journals where some of the authors and some of the readers may not be able to pay the kinds of fees that we are used to in Canada?
I might point out that even in a country like Canada not every author can pay for publication. I retired in 1998 and thus lost support for page charges, but I am trying to remain active. Without funding I find I have to be very selective in where I submit. We shouldn't assume that everyone has access to generous research grants. Bill Silvert ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Simaika" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 9:55 AM Subject: Re: Online journals and publications > The Entomological Society of British Columbia asks authors to pay for > their > submissions. However, each submission published in the society's journal > is > available online, free of charge. I think that this is a brilliant way of > sharing a wealth of knowledge and new developments, if only on a > relatively > regional scale. Certainly, bigger journals should follow this approach. > > Best wishes, > > JP Simaika. > -----Original Message----- > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bill Silvert > Sent: December 20, 2005 2:34 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Online journals and publications > > Werner raises a good point, for some scientists it simply is not > reasonable > to pay to read articles in their field. The result is that science becomes > concentrated in wealthy countries and labs with institutional > subscriptions. > > If you are not in such a place, you just don't have access. > > I don't think that science should be just for the wealthy. Those of us > with > institutional subscriptions should be willing to download and transfer > papers to our less fortunate colleagues. I find it a bit embarassing that > I > have to rely on a former student to help me keep abreast of developments > in > my field, but that is the way that scientific publishing works. It is a > lousy system, and we should do our best to subvert it. > > Bill Silvert > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "DeerLab" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 7:39 PM > Subject: Re: [Tws-l] online journals > > >> When I am asked to pay 1-2 days-worth of salary to download a paper, >> I just move on. From what I gather, many colleagues are in the same >> boat. There are some good journals which supposedly on purpose do not >> even provide an email contact for the author, that is unacceptable >> because it is counterproductive. >> >> Werner Flueck >> National Research Council >> Argentina >
