03/27/2012
Spirited Discussions this Friday March 30th! Thanks to Amy for the topic this month!
The Spirited Discussions topic this month stems off a NY Times article I read in January.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/researchers-boycott-elsevier-journal-publisher.html?_r=2&ref=science
Tim Gowers, a highly regarded mathematician according to the article, wrote in his blog that he is going to boycott Elsevier and not contribute to their journals, whether it be reviewing or publishing articles, in any way.
http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-its-downfall/
He highlights that Elsevier, a journal publishing company, is making lots of money charging poor libraries for subscriptions to journals and this success comes off the hard work of unpaid editors and reviewers. The publishing process is basically a broken system and Elsevier's policies and pricing is the worse example of the system.
Now obviously if I declare tomorrow that I am going to stop publishing in protest of the system, the world will continue to turn. But prominent scientists are starting to do it!
As scientists at the beginning of our careers, how do we navigate the emerging debate about access to knowledge and necessity of publishing our work in journals? The revolution will not be televised. What do you think about the current state of the publishing system?? DISCUSS SPIRITEDLY!
Updated from March, the list of boycotters is growing:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/316294/20120319/researchers-boycott-elsevier-open-access-journals.htm
More than 5,700 researchers are denouncing the pricing policies of the journal publisher Elsevier in a growing furor over open access to the fruits of scientific research.
