Unanswered Questions about Open Access
G.E. Gorman,
Library Link,
Mar 01, 2005
The purpose of this," writes the author, "is to put the brakes on the Open Access bandwagon." But despite its being published by a professor in a published journal, the article is filled with weak argument and outright misinformation. The first concern is that open access publication wity reduce the author's standing; "One suspects that Open Access materials will not be oft-cited by others." In fact, research proves exactly the opposite, that open access materials are more frequently cited. The author warns of publishing fees for open access journals, stating that he has never paid such fees. But publishing fees are the norm in commercial publishing, and much less so in open access publishing. He suggests that open access may cost libraries more: "what are the likely up-front fees for Open Access that libraries will be asked to absorb." The answer, thus far, is 'none' - a statistic conveniently ignored. Finally, he asks, "what of the publishers? From their perspective, if it isn’t broken, why are we fixing it?" Perhaps he is not aware of the crisis in serials publication. More and more, as I watch the the defenders of traditional scholarship acquit themselves, I wonder how they could have discovered knowledge at all amidst the flim-flammery, deception and blatant fabrication that seems to characterize so much of it.
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