[LINK] Open Access Publishing in Asia and the Pacific

[Roger Clarke]

At 13:28 +1000 6/9/12, Tom Worthington wrote:
>Mr Wiley provided a definition of open access, as befits a scholarly
>talk. He challenged Stewart Brand (publisher of the Whole Earth
>Catalogue and merry prankster) assertion that information wants to be
>free. He emphasized that no research written work is "free" ...

To be academically respectable, Wiley needs to do some research himself.

Stewart Brand's aphorism doesn't mean what he thinks it means:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/IWtbF.html


>  ... I would differ with Mr Wiley on this point as first
>of all, it is not clear if publishers make scholarly information more
>accurate ...

In my 35 years of publishing, I can remember not one single instance 
of a commercial publisher contributing anything to the substantive 
quality of any publication that I've authored (c. 150), reviewed 
(hundreds) or edited (a dozen or so).

Being an inherently ruder person than TomW, I'd say it much more 
directly - there's a vast amount of evidence to show that publishers 
have nothing to do with the accuracy of scholarly information.


>Mr Wiley said that the "gold road" would change the funding model from
>the library paying the publisher to the author paying the publisher
>(with research article publishing cost being covered by research
>grants). ...

All publishing corporations that depend on their monopoly control 
over material produced by other people naturally want anything *but* 
genuine open access, and they'll cheat and lie as necessary in the 
hope of convincing governments to grant them extensions to the lives 
of their highly lucrative businesses.

The particular form of cheating and lying involved here is the 
pretence that paying over the odds for something you don't need 
justifies the use of the term 'open access', especially with a highly 
positive-marketing-vibe word like 'gold' associated with it.

(Watch for the next attempt when this one fails, which will comprise 
yet more smoke and mirrors, and be labelled 'platinum').


>What Mr Wiley did not address in his speech is what commercial
>publishers offer to on-line scholarly publishing. Academics write the
>papers and now typeset them themselves. Other academics review the
>papers and then approve their publication using free open source
>software. University librarians handle the dissemination of the papers.
>It is not clear what commercial publishers offer in this process.

Graphic design.

Distribution lists.

Bundling (there have to be some advantages in there *somewhere*, right?).

A high price-tag, which makes it feel like it's high-quality.


Scholarly works that debunk Mr Wiley's attempts to keep the bloated 
old publishing ship afloat are indexed here:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/OARJ.html

incl.

Clarke R. (2007) 'The Cost-Profiles of Alternative Approaches to 
Journal-Publishing'  First Monday 12, 12 (December 2007), at 
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2048/1906, 
PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/JP-CP.html


Thanks to Tom for saving me from risking my blood-pressure by being 
at Wiley's presentation!


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University