Academic publishing

[mcbishop]

This little piece by George Monbiot in the Grauniad should set a few hearts racing. I can't be the only one who was concerned when the Roman Society decided to hand over Britannia lock stock and two smoking ballistae to CUP. :roll:

Mike Bishop

[Caballo]

"In the short term, governments should refer the academic publishers to their competition watchdogs, and insist that all papers arising from publicly funded research are placed in a free public database. In the longer term, they should work with researchers to cut out the middleman altogether, creating – along the lines proposed by Björn Brembs of Berlin's Freie Universität – a single global archive of academic literature and data. Peer-review would be overseen by an independent body. It could be funded by the library budgets which are currently being diverted into the hands of privateers.

The knowledge monopoly is as unwarranted and anachronistic as the corn laws. Let's throw off these parasitic overlords and liberate the research that belongs to us."

Absolutely agree! To the barricades (but no talking , and quiet please)....

[Jona Lendering]

The saddest thing is that the governments have been trying to do something for years, and haven't achieved anything.