>I am aslo disappointed to see that the archives of PMC will not
>continue to be publicly accessible -- can we have some more
>information on what the change is? is the MUSE project a pay per use
>set up, or is it to do with copyright issues?
There are statements by the editors on this subject at the main iath page
(and probably also at the jhp PMC home page which continues to be
accessible) <http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/>.
>From memory: Current issues will be kept freely online with full text at
both sites for their natural life (until a new issue comes out). The
archives will only be accessible to subscribers to the MUSE project -- that
means institutions buying into a range of journals which MUSE will house.
If you are affiliated to a subscribing institution, you will get access as
one of those rare (?) perks of the ivory towerdromehoodism. They just
haven't worked out a way to cope with individual subscriptions. Perhaps
they will opt for a pay per view system, who knows?
Well this really pissed me off, particularly the case of PMC. The first
issue affected was -- irony of irony -- the 'special' hypertext issue
(links cut -> nilsk).
What irks me most, as someone who is not affiliated to an academic
institution, was the reaffirmation of the privilege of established
knowledge brokering, and my prejudice against it. (Would I care if I was
'inside'? again?)
And it is not, it seems, enough to simply 'make a contribution' -- even, in
the case of a refereed journal like PMC, where the contribution has been
authorized -- in order to become 'part of it'. I had a piece accepted into
that hypertext issue. When I wrote objecting to the MUSEification of PMC, I
asked whether contributors might at least be granted access (in lieu of my
extremely unreasonable consultancy fees). No go. And the editor actually
told me that, if they did grant (those few unaffiliated) contributors free
access then their (speculative, vast?) revenue source would be
significantly compromised since contributors apparently form a large
proportion of the total readership for these journals. Now where have we
heard that before?
Sorry to go on. Mark did ask, and I guess there are some political and
other lessons to be learned...
Oh and, that reminds me, Nikki Madden you listening? I for one did write in
response to her/CH's kind offer regarding free LIONs for November. Did
anyone else? Are we in? How's the atmosphere? Cigar smoke and musk? Dried
blood and crow's feathers? Or, ah? ... or ah? ah a a aa a air, ah air, ah
air, ah ah ah aaaaaaa?
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