At 10:43 AM 5/7/99 -0400, you wrote: >On Thu, 6 May 1999, Stevan Harnad wrote: > >> On Thu, 6 May 1999, Thomas J. Walker wrote: >> > [...] >> > I was naive to think that Societies would think it win-win to sell at a >> > profit what their authors want. > >If it was something that obviously increased quarterly profits you >can expect the commercial journals to jump on it faster than societies! >We're non-profit after all! :-) > > Arthur ([email protected]) >
Commercial publishers should be doing everything possible to preserve S/L/P because that will allow them to continue their present, generous profits. Society publishers should be doing everything possible, so long as it is fiscally responsible, to speed and promote free access. Their members and authors will eventually demand it, so should not societies lead rather than be pushed or dragged? Selling electronic reprints, so long as paper publication continues, can be quite profitable (and thus fiscally responsible). It would help members and authors become aware of what they are missing and would make it easier for authors to transition to paying publication charges once journals are all-electronic and toll free. Tom ========================================================================= Thomas J. Walker Department of Entomology & Nematology University of Florida, PO Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620 E-mail: [email protected] FAX: (352)392-0190 Web: http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/tjwbib/walker.htm =========================================================================
