On Fri 17 May, Kenneth Ault wrote: > This topic raises an issue that has bothered me for some time. It seems > to me that publishers routinely use the native desire of scientists to > become famous, and the fact that many of us have considerable egos, to > take advantage of us. They ask us to write articles for books, or to > edit books, and pay nothing or a pittance when they are able to make > enough money to make it worthwhile for themselves. I'm not saying that > publishing is anything close to the energy trading business in terms of > profitability, but I do think we are taken advantage of. > > It would be nice (although probably impossible) if the scientific > community could come up with a mechanism to defend ourselves against this > kind of exploitation. Maybe its just my stupidity and poor negotiating > ability, but I'd be interested in the thoughts of others. > > Ken Ault This is an area which is being actively discussed and pursued. As a starter I could point you to the Open Archives Initiative <URL:http://www.openarchives.org/> The other thing is to look out for various articles and commentaries by Steve Harnad and his opponents see links from Google <URL:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Steve+Harnad&spell=1> Another link is ARL 200: Pursuing Non-Commercial Alternatives to Scholarly Communication <URL:http://www.arl.org/newsltr/200/sosteric.html> Mike Clark, <URL:http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~mrc7/> -- M.R. Clark, PhD. Division of Immunology Cambridge University, Dept. Pathology Tennis Court Rd., Cambridge CB2 1QP Tel.+44 1223 333705 Fax.+44 1223 333875
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