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Random thought, with fight club math :) - The only remaining value journals like Elsevier have are their giant stash of papers, it's the sole thing perpetuating
by tomxor 7y ago
Random thought, with fight club math :) - The only remaining value journals like Elsevier have are their giant stash of papers, it's the sole thing perpetuating the whole absurd organization... so:
A. How much money do Elsevier take from universities each year?
B. How many years will it take for Elsevier to go bankrupt without income from said universities?
C. How much money will it take to buy *all papers* from the auction at the bankruptcy of Elsevier?
If A * B >= C then all universities could save the money they spend on Elsevier to put all of their papers in public domain (Assuming B is not impractically long and assuming Elsevier don't do something evil and down size enough to sustain themselves indefinitely while sitting on a hoard of papers).
Once the content is freed universities can invest their publishing money in something more worth while like open access distribution networks.
- bonoboTP 7y agoBut having public domain papers (eg arxiv) does not advance a carrier in the same way. You need papers in high impact factor journals in many fields to look good in evaluations (at all stages in the academic carrier ladder).
- tomxor 7y agoThat is true in the past, and present out of sheer momentum, but it's clear opinion is changing on the value of these journals, especially in light of various absurd failures of their peer review process. I think they are only "high impact" merely out of critical mass, not any intrinsic quality of the journal itself. You are correct in pointing out it's a significant factor in the perpetuity of these organisations, and hopefully it's an opinion that enough boycotting will topple.
- bonoboTP 7y agoSure but academia is pretty traditional and you also need to be good in the eye of others, not just researchers in your field who understand these things. But also administrators and regulators who may not really know or care about "how the sausage is made", they want to tick boxes, and see impressive numbers for impact factors etc. They could be reeducated but convincing and educating governments must also happen.