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Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>
rz.uni-leipzig.de>Dear Linguists, some list members have remarked on the need to free science from commercial publishers. In most countries there isn't the money for university libraries to buy commercially published journals/books which linguists in richer countries consider basic. Libraries that can buy them are mostly financed by taxpayer money which could have been put to better use. Authors often have to take their work of their websites when it gets 'published' (to use the standard misnomer), so that it ceases to be accessible to many. (This even seems to happen with certain working papers series.) It is thus for the good of everyone if we could work towards replacing commercially published material with reviewed open-access internet journals (and monograph series). NON-ARGUMENTS AGAINST WEB PUBLISHING a) Limited availability of computers in some areas is most assuredly not a reason to stay with traditional publishing. A library which can't buy a computer will likewise be unable to afford a year's institutional subscription to journals as important as Lingua (970 Euro), Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (508 Euro) and Linguistics and Philosophy (549 Euro). b) I don't think internet publication entails archiving problems. Surely an internet journal could have thirty copies of each publication made on acid-free paper and paper-bound at a university printery (cf. the archiving procedure for unpublished dissertations in many universities). These could then be sold at cost price to libraries round the world. c) Would the costs of free journals go much beyond the cost of printing the paper versions? Advertising on the Linguist List is free. There are precedents for universities undertaking to provide the necessary server space and technical support indefinitely ( http://linguistic-discovery.dartmouth.edu/ ). If I have overlooked any costs, maybe people starting new free journals could apply for funding from sources that fund research or travelling grants etc. The price of open access need not be that authors pay the publishers, as in the variant of open access under discussion in Nature ( www.nature.com ). These comments may seem a bit facile given the complexity of the issues (cf. the links cited by Martin under http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2354.html). Breaking the monopoly that commercial publishers have on respected publications will be hard, but the biggest obstacle is our apathy, which doubtless stems from a feeling that we can't solve the problem. I too see the chances of improving the situation as pretty forlorn, but not hopeless if we try the following. HOW WE CAN HELP a) Take steps toward establishing more reviewed open access journal/ monograph series. Suggestions: -There needs to be a forum uniting (a) potential editors with various thematic interests who are able and willing to do the work, (b) people able to do deals with universities to get the requisite server space/technical support and (c) editors of existing internet journals willing to share their experiences. Is someone out there able to set up an internet forum where people in these categories are able to announce their availability? -It would be heroic if teams of editors could contemplate the possibility of (a) withdrawing their services from the commercial journals (as soon as their contracts and fairness towards authors etc. permits), and (b) redirecting their efforts into internet publication. (A side blessing: internet editors are freed from artificial constraints like the need to accept iffy articles just to fill an issue or to reject good articles because there are already enough even better articles to fill the next eight issues.) b) It would help if scholars whose careers are already established could undertake to submit their work only to free access electronic journals (if suitable ones exist), and make their decision to do so public (so as to inspire colleagues to imitation). If a journal could get a few big names and/or outstanding articles in it this way, the problem of establishing a good reputation for it looms less large. HOW EDITORS CAN HELP IN THE TRADITIONAL SYSTEM To get internet publication to replace commercial publishing would take a substantial, coordinated effort from a lot of selfless people, so it may not happen. If it doesn't, editors could at least try the following to reduce the costs within the existing commercial system. a) It would be good if editors of journal/book series whose publishers charge excessive prices could check whether it is legally feasible to switch to less rapacious publishers. b) It would also be good if editors could put pressure on the publishers to stop wasting money on pointless things (e.g. paying copyeditors to enforce arbitrary formatting guidelines about silly things like the punctuation in bibliographies etc. Linguistics articles are technical reports, not works of art.) Regards, Andrew *********************************************** Dr. Andrew McIntyre Universitaet Leipzig Germany http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~angling/mcintyreMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue