Joy
I am a librarian and reluctant to tread on academic toes,
but I must lend my support to John Smith's views on the
earning opportunities for academic authors.
Below is an extract from a paper on the 'Subject
Librarian's Experience' I gave at a CURL meeting in June
1997.
(http://www.curl.ac.uk/morgan.pdf)
As the transcript of an oral presentation it is
deliberately couched in less than nuanced terms:
'There are several conflicting models of the academic
author in the air at the moment. One selflessly considers
herself to be the reporter of research findings, the
writing being an integral part of the research contract.
She expects no financial reward and wishes her research to
be available to everyone in the academic community, as long
as no financial profit accrues [to anyone else]. This
author (in some disciplines at least) enriches her
institution through the impact factor of her articles
within the Research Assessment Exercise. Surprisingly such
people do exist.
Author [T]wo doesn't want any financial reward either, but
for career reasons wants to publish his articles in
prestige journals and his monographs with prestige
imprints. He will not welcome changes [along the lines
advocated by John Smith] to the [present]system. Most
academics I have met fall into this category.
The third wants a slice of everything that's going. She
will retain copyright, and license publication and copying
of her work at differing rates in different
circumstances..... These are the fortunate few in this
country at this time. They will hate losing their pickings.
The latter two categories would be brought into line by the
automatic assignment of copyright to the academic
institution ... on completion of the work. (If any author,
in her own time, with her own resources and without
impinging on her institutional contract, turns out work
that she can sell, let her cut the best deal she can
wherever she can.)'
It seems to me that ALCS's initiative attempts to turn my
'category two' authors into 'category three'. If it
succeeds, it will be to the detriment of the academic
enterprise. The reluctance of some in the academic
community to realise that they are trying to milk a
tottering beast suggests that professional management of
their publishing activities would not come amiss.
Best wishes
Colin Morgan
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Colin Morgan [log in to unmask]
Arts Librarian Phone:0151 794 2684
Sydney Jones Library Fax: 0151 794 2684
P.O. Box 123
The University of Liverpool
Liverpool
L69 3DA
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