Open Haus: The Future of Scholarly Publishing
Today at The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis we’re having an open discussion about the future of scholarly publishing. I may post some notes from it later, but, Stephanie Pau and I have compiled a list of thought questions and helpful links to help folk prep. And, as it was an interesting gathering of linkage, I thought it mide be useful more broadly. So, below is the text of my email and the useful links. I realize that I am blogging my email. Is this a new low? Perhaps. Enjoy!
Hello, all! For today’s open house, we’ll be talking about the growing hubub regarding academic publishing and the relationship between scientists and publishers. Is it time for a change? What is the way forward?
This is a big topic, and not all of you may be aware of the things that have gone down over the past few months that are bringing this to a head. As such, Steph and I have put together a list of links that give you an introduction to all of this as well as some questions to bear in mind while perusing them. Don’t worry, they’re all pretty quick reads - short blog posts or an Xtranormal video which is brilliant.
Also exciting, we’re going to have a few guests who are involved in scholarly publishing from campus (and maybe beyond).
Marty Einhorn (KITP) for perspective on http://arxiv.org and the physics community’s take on this Josh Schimel (EEMB) who is on the ESA publications committee Chuck Bazerman (Education) a consultant for http://hypothes.is/
See you at 4pm in the lounge. And, as the weather has been gorgeous, if we want to continue the conversation after 5, Tony Ray’s?
Open House – Is it time for a change in scientific publishing?
Questions to Ponder
Do we need a change our model of scientific publishing? Why?What needs to change?Are scientists/ecologists ready for a change? Are we too conservative or slow to adopt change in general, open access in particular? I.e., good in theory, doesn't work in practice? (<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/open-science-challenges-journal-tradition-with-web-collaboration.html?ref=science>)What are the differences between commercial (e.g., Elsevier) and non-profit journals (e.g., ESA) that affect the exchange of scientific information (<http://bjoern.brembs.net/comment-n820.html>)? There does not appear to be a difference in quality as measured by the number of citations (<http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publishing/ecology_citationprice.html>)Do commercial journals offer us something that non-profit journals do not? Prestige? What about differences between ESA and PloS (high costs put on author) models?If the exchange of information is better served by open access, should we refuse to review for commercial journals?Is there a difference between exchange of information for the sake of the discipline and personal academic success?
Resources on Open Access http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Social_media_sites_about_OA
The Issue at Hand An Introduction with some Humor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMIY_4t-DR0
The Research Works, H.R. 3699 Act & Responses from Scientists http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3699:
http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=807
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/2012/01/06/scientists-fight-for-access/
[http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/stp-rfi-response-january-2012
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/29/the-lairds-of-learning/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist
ESA’s statement on Open Access back in Jan (that some on Ecolog-L were not too happy about) http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecology-in-policy/esa-policy-news-january-13-2/
A Pledge to Not Publish in Elsevier Journals (e.g., TREE) with a lot of folk signing on http://thecostofknowledge.com/
Further Meditations Academic Spring? http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/02/federal_research_public_access_act_the_research_works_act_and_the_open_access_movement_.html
Comments from Michael Hochberg https://sites.google.com/site/perspectivesinpublishing/our-mission
Do publishers add value? Nature says yes. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v481/n7382/full/481409a.html
http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=873
Publishers need us more than we need them http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/01/21/you-need-us-more-than-we-need-you/#.TyAbbuNSSWU
http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/01/22/journals-academic-and-the-ivory-tower/#.TyAbieNSSWU
Oh, just go and read Michael Eisen’s blog already. I mean, he co-founded PLoS! http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/
Solutions?
Federal Research Public Access Act, or, Scientists Strike Back. #FRPAA http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap/Notes_on_the_Federal_Research_Public_Access_Act
http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=925
Beyond Academic Journals http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/01/25/beyond-academic-journals/
What Math and Physics have been doing for years http://arxiv.org/
Nature Preceedings http://precedings.nature.com/
Faculty 1000 new open access publication: http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/01/f1000-launches-fast-open-science-publishing-for-biology-and-medicine.html
Something Wholly New? Gratuitous self-link
http://futureofscipub.wordpress.com/
People and hashtags to follow on twitter
@mbeisen (Michael Eisen)
@phylogenomics (Jonathan Eisen)