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Good. Very good. Something needs to be done about scientific publishing and the excessively high tolls on knowledge. The publishing industry may claim that it
by bborud 15y ago
Good. Very good.
Something needs to be done about scientific publishing and the excessively high tolls on knowledge. The publishing industry may claim that it performs some vital role, but I find it extremely unlikely that this is the optimal way of reviewing and disseminating knowledge.
I think we are morally obliged to do a lot better.
To me the paywalls around scientific publishing is a lot more than a question of principles -- it may end up impacting my life. Five months ago I was diagnosed with kidney failure. If left untreated, this will kill me. What I do the next months may have a big impact on my quality of life.
When your doctor tells you that you have a condition that will kill you, I would assume that most of you would try to educate yourselves on the topic. This includes reading recent papers.
Well, good luck with that. For absolutely every aspect that I have looked into I keep bumping my head into paywalls. Some articles are only available if I pay a lot of money -- and I have no way of knowing up front if the article will be worth it. Kidney disease is a narrow enough subject for publications to be very expensive.
I am continually asked what the hell I need access to these articles for since I am not a doctor. Imagine that: people acquiring knowledge because they need it and not because the publishing industry needs the money...
I think it is time academia started taking knowledge seriously.
- imeikas 15y agoYou may try to contact the authors in the papers directly. In addition to getting the paper you might even get to discuss the issues directly with the authors.
- bborud 15y agoAt this stage I am mostly trying to get an overview and trying to find out what I need to know. This means reading a few books to give me the background knowledge I know and it means surveying what is being published to identify topics I need to explore. This usually means _skimming_ a lot of material to determine if it is worth my time right now. If I need to contact the author, that slows the process down a lot.
- kragen 15y agoYes, there is a tradition in academic publishing of sending several unbound copies of the printed article to the original author, which they will then send to people who write to them requesting them; these copies are called "offprints". Your mileage requesting copies of articles from surviving authors might vary, but mine has generally been very good.
- czr80 15y agoWere the papers you were trying to read in Elsevier journals? They do offer an option for people with medical conditions to get free access to papers they would like to see - don't know if that helps you, but perhaps good to know.
- bborud 15y agoI don't remember anymore. What I do remember is that the publication seemed narrow in scope, was published monthly and cost several thousand USD per year. I also tried the old trick of searching for "unlikely phrases" in the abstract to look for accidental publication online, but didn't find anything.
- greboun 15y agoHi, I read your comment and the first thing I want to say is that I am sorry for your condition. I would like to ask you if you are willing to tell your story on a site on open access that we have set up to show that the need for open access is not only for academics. The site is whoneedsaccess.org. We have another site called @ccess at access.okfn.org with info and blogs. Please read the info on the site and if you want to tell your story you can contact me at tomolijhoek@malariastichting.nl thnx
- bborud 15y agoThanks for your concern! I'd be happy to help any way I can.
- zerostar07 15y agoPeople take it for granted that all academics have access to these paywalls. My institute recently cancelled subscriptions to major Nature journals due to financial constrains, forcing us to end up with personal subscriptions.
- bborud 15y agoPeople also take for granted that only people at universities (or affiliated with certain classes of institutions) have any use for these publications.