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'Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainity and agitation distinquish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones ... All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.' Marx

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August 6, 2009

I have just come across Stevan Harnad's For Whom the Gate Tolls?How and Why to Free the Refereed Research Literature Online Through Author/Institution Self-Archiving, Now. It starts with an excellent picture of the current dissemination of academic research--a system that works to prevent the dissemination of academic research, even though there is no longer any need for research or researchers to be constrained by the access-blocking restrictions of paper distribution.

Harnard is proposing the online self-archiving, free for all, of refereed, published research papers in the on-line PostGutenberg era. His reason can be seen in the following picture:

1. A brand-new PhD recipient proudly tells his mother he has just published his first article. She asks him how much he was paid for it. He makes a face and tells her "nothing," and then begins a long, complicated explanation...

2. A fellow-researcher at that same university sees a reference to that same article. He goes to their library to get it: "It's not subscribed to here. We can't afford that journal. (Our subscription/license/loan/copy budget is already overspent)"

3. An undergraduate at that same university sees the same article cited on the Web. He clicks on it. The publisher's website demands a password: "Access Denied:Only pre-paid subscribing/licensed institutions have access to this journal."

4. The undergraduate loses patience, gets bored, and clicks on Napsterto grab an MP3 file of his favourite bootleg CD to console him in his sorrows.

5. Years later, the same PhD is being considered for tenure. His publications are good, but they're not cited enough; they have not made enough of a "research impact." Tenure denied.

6. Same thing happens when he tries to get a research grant: His research findings have not had enough of an impact: Not enough researchers have read, built upon and cited them. Funding denied.

7. He decides to write a book instead. Book publishers decline to publish it: "It wouldn't sell enough copies because not enough universities have enough money to pay for it. (Their purchasing budgets are tied up paying for their inflating annual journal subscription/license/loan costs...)"

8. He tries to put his articles up on the Web, free for all, to increase their impact. His publisher threatens to sue him and his server-provider for violation of copyright.

9. He asks his publisher: "Who is this copyright intended to protect?" His publisher replies: "You!"

The article goes onto explore what is wrong with the picture. The core anomaly is that though researchers derive their income not from the sale of their research reports but from the scholarly/scientific impact of their reported findings, i.e., how much they are read, cited, and built-upon by other researchers all fee-based access-barriers are income-barriers for research and researchers restricting their potential impact to only those (institutions, mainly) who can and do pay the access-fees.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:22 AM |