Landing : Athabascau University

The Cost of Knowledge: petition and pledge

http://thecostofknowledge.com/index.php

An opportunity to join over 10,000 academics (so far) protesting against publisher exploitation of a lucky advantage that puts them in a position of abusable power. This particular petition is aimed at Elsevier, whose abuses are worse than most.

Comments

  • Nathaniel Ostashewski April 22, 2012 - 9:19pm

    Hello Jon

    I agree as well, but what do you then recommend to those of us who need to publish to be able to get a job, advance our career, etc. You know, us new comers to academia?  What would be your recommendations for us on where to publish, review, edit in order to get the experience that academia wants to see?

    Self Publishing? More Open Books and Publications? Is there a list that you would recommend to AU graduate students?

    Thanks

    Nathaniel

  • Jon Dron April 23, 2012 - 1:03am

    hi Nathaniel

    There are plenty of very high quality open journals in most fields, and some economic models that make a lot of sense without sacrificing any quality or reputation at all. Quite the reverse in fact (PLoS, for instance). In the field of online learning I'd rate IRRODL, JoDI, EuroDL, journal of educational technology and society and several more at least as highly as most of the closed ones. Not only that, the chances of being cited are greatly increased if your paper is in an open journal because it is easier for people to find and read. Citations count for quite a lot - they are among the clearest and most unambiguous measures we have for academic prestige, at least of a certain kind - so this seems the most logical thing to do for someone new to academia.

    Jon

  • Nathaniel Ostashewski April 23, 2012 - 1:06am

    Fantastic Jon - that really helps - so I will join the group who will not choose to publish to Elsevier Journals - until they change their ways and pay people to contribute, review and publish... or become open themselves. Thanks for that :)