> Surely you know that there are many university presses,
> subsidised by their institutions.
I sure do.
> Editing a journal -- acquiring and reviewing articles --may count as
> scholarship,
> but the technical work of copy-editing, laying it out in InDesign, etc.,
> do not.
Universities already employ people with those skills. But that's not the
point. The point I am trying to make is, if all journals were published
by universities, and if the universities only sought to cover their
costs, unlike the private firms who make for profit journals, then more
journals could be available to more people. The thing we produce,
knowledge, is the most valuable commodity in the world. It doesn't need
stockholders who take profits. The profit in knowledge is made when it
is freely available to all.
> You seem to have a problem with people being paid
> to do editorial and publishing work, or you think that universities
> have unlimited sources of money.
Just to be clear, I have no problem at all with people getting paid for
editorial or publishing work. I get paid for it. I don't think
universities are endless fonts of cash. I am just doing a bit of 'what
if' ing. I'm wondering what might happen if people like Chris Anderson,
with his freeconomics, (
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all
or http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/11/the_rise_of_fre.html )
turn out to be right.
Regards,
Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
University of Queensland
religionbazaar.blogspot.com
Chas S. Clifton wrote:
>>
>> Naive thought for the day. If academics are encouraged to publish by
>> their institution, and are paid by their unis for writing journal
>> articles, then why don't unis pay them to edit journals too?
>
> Editing a journal -- acquiring and reviewing articles --may count as
> scholarship,
> but the technical work of copy-editing, laying it out in InDesign, etc.,
> do not. Those
> must be done by paid professionals (or, in some cases, by graduate
> students, but even they get a stipend for it, usually.)
>>
>
>> And why
>> don't the unis pay to print and distribute journals? Then the journals
>> would be in the hands of academics, not for profit companies.
>
> Surely you know that there are many university presses,
> subsidized by their institutions. Nevertheless, they are required
> to pay at least part of their own way by charging for their
> products.
>
> Other academic publishers: -- Continuum, Blackwells, Ashgate,
> Equinox, Rowman & Littlefield, and many others -- are simply
> for-profit enterprises that publish for particular niche markets.
>
> You seem to have a problem with people being paid
> to do editorial and publishing work, or you think that universities
> have unlimited sources of money. Maybe a few of them
> in the Persian Gulf States do ...
>
> As for Wikipedia, I appreciate the procedural clarification,
> but I wonder if it won't (a) evolve into something else or
> (b) collapse under its own weight one day.
>
> Chas
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