4 ms·

I am tempted to say these boycotts are (as of yet) having no effect at all. Having bought the idea up a couple of times, I believe the majority of academics (e

I am tempted to say these boycotts are (as of yet) having no effect at all. Having bought the idea up a couple of times, I believe the majority of academics (even in computing subjects) don't know they "should" be boycotting, and most have no intention of joining in when it is discussed with them. I wonder if most of the noise you hear is from people attached to the 'free' journals, who obviously have an interest in getting people away from Elsevier.

bwarp 15y ago
Academics revolt by committee from experience. It takes a while.
- irollboozers 15y ago
  Only after a review of peers, paid for by the journals too.
  - estevez 15y ago
    I think the exact point is that the journals don't pay for peer review.
AnthonBerg 15y ago
"The company has been criticised not only by advocates of a switch to the open-access publication model, but also by universities whose library budgets make it difficult for them to afford current journal prices. For example, a resolution by Stanford University's senate singled out Elsevier as an example of a publisher of journals which might be "disproportionately expensive compared to their educational and research value" and which librarians should consider dropping, and encouraged its faculty "not to contribute articles or editorial or review efforts to publishers and journals that engage in exploitive or exorbitant pricing".[6] Similar guidelines and criticism of Elsevier's pricing policies have been passed by the University of California, Harvard University and Duke University." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier
impendia 15y ago
This will have an effect, but slowly. Editors of Elsevier journals will send papers off for review, and get a growing number of "Sorry, I don't review papers for Elsevier journals." If you tell people that you are an editor for a nonprofit journal, everyone will agree that's a good thing, but telling people you edit for Elsevier will not have the same effect. Editorial jobs will become a drag. Morale will drop. People will quit. Journals will have to recruit lesser-known editors (and no one wants to submit good papers to journals with a bunch of B-list editors). Meanwhile, people like Tim Gowers -- who is spearheading this movement, and who is also one of the most prolific mathematicians in the world -- will find other homes for their work. Wherever Gowers, Terry Tao, etc. publish, junior scientists would be very happy to follow. That is how the prestigious journals got that way in the first place.

bwarp 15y ago

Academics revolt by committee from experience. It takes a while.

irollboozers 15y ago
Only after a review of peers, paid for by the journals too.
- estevez 15y ago
  I think the exact point is that the journals don't pay for peer review.

AnthonBerg 15y ago

"The company has been criticised not only by advocates of a switch to the open-access publication model, but also by universities whose library budgets make it difficult for them to afford current journal prices. For example, a resolution by Stanford University's senate singled out Elsevier as an example of a publisher of journals which might be "disproportionately expensive compared to their educational and research value" and which librarians should consider dropping, and encouraged its faculty "not to contribute articles or editorial or review efforts to publishers and journals that engage in exploitive or exorbitant pricing".[6] Similar guidelines and criticism of Elsevier's pricing policies have been passed by the University of California, Harvard University and Duke University." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier

impendia 15y ago

This will have an effect, but slowly. Editors of Elsevier journals will send papers off for review, and get a growing number of "Sorry, I don't review papers for Elsevier journals." If you tell people that you are an editor for a nonprofit journal, everyone will agree that's a good thing, but telling people you edit for Elsevier will not have the same effect. Editorial jobs will become a drag. Morale will drop. People will quit. Journals will have to recruit lesser-known editors (and no one wants to submit good papers to journals with a bunch of B-list editors). Meanwhile, people like Tim Gowers -- who is spearheading this movement, and who is also one of the most prolific mathematicians in the world -- will find other homes for their work. Wherever Gowers, Terry Tao, etc. publish, junior scientists would be very happy to follow. That is how the prestigious journals got that way in the first place.