FYI. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/10/25/DPLA-initiative-nearly-operational/
Digital Library Nearly Online By GAUTAM S. KUMAR and JULIA L. RYAN, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS Published: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 The Digital Public Library of America, an initiative spearheaded by Harvard faculty members, is making fast progress toward developing a fully operational online database of existing digitized works by April 2013... On Tue, 25 Oct 2011, Jakob Eriksson wrote: > > On Oct 25, 2011, at 12:45 PM, Joe Touch wrote: > >> IMO, the venue is impacted much more by the quality of the papers submitted >> than by the quality of the reviews. >> >> This is why, e.g., conferences in nice, warm places in the wintertime become >> quite competitive for good papers. >> >> I.e., I don't debate your logic on this point, except that it's at least >> equally important to boycott submissions too -- the pledge doesn't make a >> statement about that, though. > > This point was discussed here earlier. The choice not to mention submissions > is discussed on their "about" page, and I would say the argument is well > founded. > >>> A colleague of mine chimed in with these statistics today: "Elsevier >>> (publishing, not the Reed Elsevier parent company) received 2 billion >>> EUR in revenue in 2010 and kept approximately 36% of that as profit." >>> >>> What exactly is it that Elsevier does (not their volunteering >>> reviewers and authors), that justifies $2B/year of funding, and 720 >>> million in annual profits? >> >> A lot of publishers - and authors - make money selling books. Journals are >> often loss-leaders. That's what I've heard. I appreciate that I don't have >> inside info on this, but absent that info you're tarring an entire industry >> inappropriately. > > I didn't want to make the message too long. However, the same colleague > provided the following numbers: > > "An Elsevier statement from 2007 says that Elsevier's 'Science and > Technology' division contributed 51% of 'total Elsevier revenue' and > that 77% of this 51% was from journals. An Elsevier statement in July > 2009 said that "electronic revenue" from academics and governments "has > grown to approximately 90% of Elsevier's total journal revenue.' " > > Assuming these numbers are correct, which I have every reason to believe, > Elsevier journals are much closer to "cash cow" than "loss leader". :-) Here > are some numbers on how much my university library pays for our various > subscriptions: > > Elsevier: $1,235,800 > Springer: ~$700,000 (estimated) > IEEE: $93,497.50 > ACM: $4,579.86 > > I'm sure this is a bit skewed by our ginormous medical school, but some of > those numbers are pretty scary. For the record, I'm not sure about the > accuracy of the ACM number, it may not include the Digital Library (since it > looks rather affordable). > >> I'll note that you yourself published a number of papers in IEEE venues - >> and the IEEE charges for access. > > Yes, in the past I have signed away my rights to much of my written work. It > is not something I am proud of, but it is something I would like to try > putting a stop to, without destroying my career in the meantime. > >> Is there some reason that's not legitimate? Is this about charging for >> access to research, or for overcharging? > > > To me, it is not about the price, it is about ownership. I want to retain > ownership of the documents that I created. At the very least, I should have > an absolute right to publish them for free, unrestricted download directly > from my webpage. > > I could live with restrictions on for-profit re-publication, which would > probably be enough to support the day-to-day operations of publishers. > > Jakob Eriksson > Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago > phone: (312)77-JAKOB > 851 S Morgan (M/C 152), Room 1120 SEO, Chicago, IL 60607-7053 > _______________________________________________ > IEEE Communications Society Tech. Committee on Computer Communications > (TCCC) - for discussions on computer networking and communication. > [email protected] > https://lists.cs.columbia.edu/cucslists/listinfo/tccc > _______________________________________________ IEEE Communications Society Tech. Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC) - for discussions on computer networking and communication. [email protected] https://lists.cs.columbia.edu/cucslists/listinfo/tccc
