Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan

Re:Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan by sago on Thursday July 02, 2015 @05:47PM (#9821913)

But the financier of the research is already paying for the research to be done, rarely for their economic interest, but so that it gets out there, establishes the science, furthers knowledge, cements reputations, etc. For research done by economic interests the incentive is even stronger, a drug company, say, wants to get their drug out, proven, marketed.

Your response seems high on derision, but you've not actually made any point about why it shouldn't be the people paying for the research's role to pay for the research's availability.

The counter arguments is on availability, the hegemony of large institutions, and the lack of transparency of funding bodies.

So, other than derision, accusations of naked emperors, and a variation of "didn't used to be like that", what actually is your problem with that model?

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Re:Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan by lultimouomo on Thursday July 02, 2015 @06:07PM (#9822045)

  > So, other than derision, accusations of naked emperors, and a variation of "didn't used to be like that", what actually is your problem with that model?

The fact that the interest of the journal is now naturally aligned with that of the writer, instead of with that of the reader. This makes it very useful for the writer, which pays[0], publishes and so gets to live another year having his grant renewed; it also makes it quite useless for the reader, which cannot count on a seriously curated publication.

[0] "Pays" meaning "diverts part of his funding allowance"

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Re:Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan by capnrefsmmat on Thursday July 02, 2015 @06:44PM (#9822234)

I don't know if that's true. "Readers" currently means "research libraries", who act on behalf of the scientists doing the research, so shift isn't so great.

Additionally, open access journals still must maintain an image of prestige and quality -- authors want to publish in the most prestigious possible journal. There is incentive for journals to compete on quality even when paid by authors.

In any case, I think the role of journals as gatekeepers for quality is overstated (peer reviewers and editors generally do a bad job assessing article quality), and as science shifts to alternative forms of peer review and publication, journals will matter less.

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Re:Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan by sago on Thursday July 02, 2015 @09:10PM (#9822802)

> The fact that the interest of the journal is now naturally aligned with that of the writer, instead of with that of the reader.

Thank you. Good observation. I didn't get that from your original comment.

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