Hi John,
The impact factor. The biggest piece of bs in this entire exercise. The
impact of a piece of research may not be felt for years, especially if
it is ahead of its time. The Nobel committee knows this but not some
university bureaucrats when it comes to promoting some poor person on
the basis of this bs requirement.
This is managerialism, the rationalization of bureaucracy, gone wild,
though not as wild as in the US government. David Owen, a certified
psychiatrist who as far as I know never really practiced, though that is
beside the point, wrote a book not that many years ago called In
Sickness and in Power. His argument was that a very large number of
people in positions of great power were mentally ill. And these weren’t
just politicians. It seems that sometimes it was the office they held
that brought on the illness - for instance, it appeared to make Blair
hubristic in the extreme, though not as badly as with Bush Jr and
Cheney. Cheney used to be driven around Washington with a gas mask on
the seat beside him in his car. Either this is a complex charade or
there is/was something wrong with Cheney psychologically. This is not
normal behavior. Any clinical psychologist will tell you this.
Of course, it could be argued that we live in unnormal times. And indeed
we do. If anyone thinks it is bad here, it is worse across the pond. If
you think the Nixon administration was terrible, and it was, I would
advise a closer look at the Obama administration. And I want to support
him and believe that he will in the end do the right thing.
Sorry. Didn't mean to go on. It is just that the impact factor, publish
or perish, and some of the craziness of some of our politicians and
business leaders all appear to be part of the mix of some authoritarian
bureaucratic impetus pushing us further and further in a particular
ideologically biased direction. I don't think it is too bad here yet,
but I may not be the best person to make such a judgment.
Larry
------ Original Message ------
From: "John Urquhart" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 06/02/2013 15:45:35
Subject: Re: JSTOR
>No, not at all. Scientists have to 'publish or perish'. The advent
>of such criteria as impact factor has only accentuated this trend.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>John Urquhart
>
>On 1 February 2013 15:46, Martin Rathfelder <[log in to unmask]>
>wrote:
>> What sort of contract is involved. Are scientists paid by the
>>journals?
>>
>> On 01/02/13 12:22, John Urquhart wrote:
>>>
>>> Aaron Swartz's death has drawn attention to a fundamental problem in
>>> society, namely the use of copyright to restrict the flow of
>>> information. The irony is that all those scientists who want their
>>> work to be disseminated as widely as possible have joined a system
>>> which forbids them to communicate their peer-reviewed articles
>>> electronically for free. Aaron Swartz was trying to break the
>>> societal division which allowed only members of academic
>>>institutions
>>> to have direct free access to the world's store of knowledge.
>>>
>>> The solution lies in scientists' negotiating the right to
>>>disseminate
>>> their peer reviewed articles, say, six months after being published
>>>in
>>> a journal. Paradoxically, this would actually increase subscriptions
>>> and the signal value of a particular journal that agreed to this
>>> request. Six months is a long enough period to take into account the
>>> insatiable curiosity of those looking for new knowledge, but short
>>> enough to enable considered research to reassess the original
>>> information by having access to original scientific articles.
>>>Without
>>> this kind of solution, 97% of the general population is excluded
>>>from
>>> meaningful scientific debate, and has to rely mainly on filtered
>>>press
>>> releases.
>>>
>>> John Urquhart
>>>
>>> On 21 January 2013 18:48, the.Duke.of.URL <[log in to unmask]>
>>>wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear John,
>>>>
>>>> While I completely sympathize with your point of view, I don't
>>>>think it
>>>> is
>>>> the case that Swartz 'hacked' into JSTOR. He just did something for
>>>>which
>>>> neither MIT nor they were prepared. He appears to have had
>>>>legitimate
>>>> access
>>>> to the archive. It is usually impractical for the average user of
>>>>JSTOR
>>>> to
>>>> download about half a million documents. He obviously had no
>>>>intention of
>>>> reading them all. Therefore, they could not have been for his own
>>>> personal
>>>> use. JSTOR appears to have been operating under such an assumption.
>>>>And
>>>> were
>>>> caught out.
>>>>
>>>> MIT's role in this is a lot more cloudy. They claim to be
>>>>investigating
>>>> and
>>>> therefore can't really comment.
>>>>
>>>> What is disgusting is that institutions' first line of defense is
>>>>not mea
>>>> culpa with an intention of fixing what went wrong if anything but
>>>>to
>>>> accuse
>>>> an individual, usually someone vulnerable, of doing something
>>>>wrong.
>>>> Therefore, not their fault.
>>>>
>>>> Part of the problem here is that we seem to be operating under a
>>>>deeply
>>>> entrenched blame culture, which is reinforced virtually every day
>>>>by the
>>>> lying of politicians and other public officials as a first
>>>>reaction. I
>>>> have
>>>> no idea how to overturn this.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> larry brownstein
>>>> ------ Original Message ------
>>>> From: "John Urquhart" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> To: "the.Duke.of.URL" <[log in to unmask]>;[log in to unmask]
>>>> Sent: 21/01/2013 11:53:02
>>>> Subject: Re: JSTOR
>>>>>
>>>>> It is significant that JSTOR's statement is not signed by an
>>>>> individual accepting responsibility for that statement, or at
>>>>>least
>>>>> acting as a point of contact. Had this been done, it would be
>>>>> possible to point out to him that the creators of the world's
>>>>>store of
>>>>> knowledge appear to be forced under the present system to
>>>>>surrender
>>>>> copyright to the publishers of their work. Otherwise, they would
>>>>>be
>>>>> at liberty to publish on the internet their original papers
>>>>>without
>>>>> individuals such Aaron Swatrz risking their lives and reason to
>>>>>hack
>>>>> into the world's store of knowledge. In the long-run, Swartz's
>>>>>death
>>>>> is the responsibility of all those scientists who subscribed to
>>>>>this
>>>>> totalitarian system of thought, which perpetuates a class
>>>>>structure
>>>>> and bodes ill for the futures of both science and society.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please note: my name,
>>>>>
>>>>> John Urquhart
>>>>>
>>>>> On 16 January 2013 00:37, the.Duke.of.URL <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Whatever one may think of JSTOR's statement, it does indicate
>>>>>>that the
>>>>>> justice department's persecution of Swartz can not be defended on
>>>>>> rational
>>>>>> grounds.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From JSTOR:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Aaron Swartz
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We are deeply saddened to hear the news about Aaron Swartz. We
>>>>>>extend
>>>>>> our
>>>>>> heartfelt condolences to Aaron’s family, friends, and everyone
>>>>>>who
>>>>>> loved,
>>>>>> knew, and admired him. He was a truly gifted person who made
>>>>>>important
>>>>>> contributions to the development of the internet and the web from
>>>>>>which
>>>>>> we
>>>>>> all benefit.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We have had inquiries about JSTOR’s view of this sad event given
>>>>>>the
>>>>>> charges
>>>>>> against Aaron and the trial scheduled for April. The case is one
>>>>>>that
>>>>>> we
>>>>>> ourselves had regretted being drawn into from the outset, since
>>>>>>JSTOR’s
>>>>>> mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of
>>>>>>scholarly
>>>>>> knowledge. At the same time, as one of the largest archives of
>>>>>> scholarly
>>>>>> literature in the world, we must be careful stewards of the
>>>>>>information
>>>>>> entrusted to us by the owners and creators of that content. To
>>>>>>that
>>>>>> end,
>>>>>> Aaron returned the data he had in his possession and JSTOR
>>>>>>settled any
>>>>>> civil
>>>>>> claims we might have had against him in June 2011.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> JSTOR is a not-for-profit service and a member of the internet
>>>>>> community.
>>>>>> We
>>>>>> will continue to work to distribute the content under our care as
>>>>>> widely
>>>>>> as
>>>>>> possible while balancing the interests of researchers, students,
>>>>>> libraries,
>>>>>> and publishers as we pursue our commitment to the long-term
>>>>>> preservation
>>>>>> of
>>>>>> this important scholarly literature.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We join those who are mourning this tragic loss.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> larry
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Dr L Brownstein
>>>>>> [alt-e]: [log in to unmask]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Review Editor
>>>>>> Radical Statistics
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "It's difficult to reason someone out of something that they've
>>>>>>never
>>>>>> been
>>>>>> reasoned into."
>>>>>> -- Jonathan Swift
>>>>>>
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>> --
>> Martin Rathfelder
>> Director
>> Socialist Health Association
>> 22 Blair Road
>> Manchester
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