Hi all
I think it’s worth adding that
different academic fields have been more/less enthusiastic about open access to
academic knowledge and practices of digital scholarship. And these debates
extend beyond the publication of peer reviewed papers to include open data, online
methods of working, and so on.
In addition to various routes to open
access publication, there are also a good number of open repositories available
online, either in subject areas (http://arxiv.org),
or run by institutions (http://oro.open.ac.uk).
This area is also the subject of academic
study. Librarians and academics have made, and are continuing to make
contributions. For example:
McAndrew, Patrick; Scanlon, Eileen and Clow, Doug (2010).
The open access Journal of Science Communication addressed some of these
issues in 2008 – see http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/07/02/Jcom0702%282008%29C01
Best wishes
Rick
Dr. Richard Holliman
Senior Lecturer in Science Communication
Department of Environment, Earth and Ecosystems
Faculty of Science
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Tel +44 (0)1908 654646
Select http://www.open.ac.uk/personalpages/r.m.holliman for more information about my work.
Select http://isotope.open.ac.uk for the Isotope website.
From:
Francis Sedgemore [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 September 2011 09:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Serials
crisis and corn laws
That is certainly a problem for science journalists whose online
wibblings are increasingly followed by comments complaining about lack of
access to the source material, and absence of proper citation of original
papers.
When it comes to science with a high news value in the
The poor lay reader, on the other hand, is then faced with an abstract
and little or no more. I can understand their frustration, but sympathise only
to a degree. If the reader really really wants to view the entire paper, they
can access it without a personal subscription provided they are patient
(difficult, I know, in this age of googlegratification), and either visit a
library which carries the journal, or source the paper from authors willing to
provide PDFs to serious enquirers. The latter may be against the rules,
strictly speaking, but the journals know it happens, and do not seem
particularly bothered by the practice. In the end it comes down to good
judgement.
What Nature and some other science journals are doing more and more
these days is provide free online access to supplementary material in the form
of news articles, blogs and so on. One could criticise the publisher for the
way in which it selects material for public release, but at least it is making
some attempt to be inclusive, while at the same time operating a commercial
business.
The problem is with the more specialised journals, and there is no easy
answer to this. But it is simply not enough to proclaim, Monbiot-like from the
barricades, that all information must be free, and fantasise about publishers
Francis
On 7 Sep 11, at 21:59, Ben Johnson wrote:
I remember a session at the
science communication conference a couple of years ago discussing the gap
between current social research and the science communication community.
One reason for the gap might be that we don’t have access to academic
libraries and can’t justify a speculative spend on reading a piece of
research we have already funded. Imagine telling any other funder they
should pay to see your results.
Just a thought
ben
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