ON a related thread. Lawrence 2007. The mismeasurement of science. Current Biology http://www.labri.fr/perso/gimbert/lawrence-current-biology-2007.pdf
Excerpt: Answer from the hero in Leo Szilard’s 1948 story “The Mark Gable Foundation” when asked by a wealthy entrepreneur who believes that science has progressed too quickly, what he should do to retard this progress: “You could set up a foundation with an annual endowment of thirty million dollars. Research workers in need of funds could apply for grants, if they could make a convincing case. Have ten committees, each composed of twelve scientists, appointed to pass on these applications. Take the most active scientists out of the laboratory and make them members of these committees. ...First of all, the best scientists would be removed from their laboratories and kept busy on committees passing on applications for funds. Secondly the scientific workers in need of funds would concentrate on problems which were considered promising and were pretty certain to lead to publishable results. ...By going after the obvious, pretty soon science would dry out. Science would become something like a parlor game. ...There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashions would get grants. Those who wouldn’t would not.” There is another kind of justice than the justice of number……. There is a justice of newborn worlds which cannot be counted. [1] And so it has happened. Malcolm On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Alexandre F. Souza <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Julie, > > I fully agree with Monbiot's criticism of scientific publishing by > academic publishers and believe it is far from paranoia. > > The main scape out are the open journals. For many of us third world > researchers the main difficulty regarding open journals are page > charges. I believe it can be partially staked round by including > publication costs in advance in our projects. > > Personally I am beginning to do that. It is not a perfect solution > because projects frequently ends before articles are published or even > submitted. > > I am also not a fan of high-impact journals. In a web era like ours, > articles are searched for easily and most people tends to pick them > according to affinity to current interests and not so much by the > "importance" of the vehicle. We should free ourselves from the > largely psychological need to publish in famous journals. > > All the best, > > Alexandre > -- Malcolm L. McCallum Oceania University of Medicine Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
