[GOAL] Re: Jeffrey Beall Needlessly Compromises Credibility of Beall's List

[Jean-Claude Guédon]

Le lundi 16 décembre 2013 à 14:34 +0000, Graham Triggs a écrit :
> On 14 December 2013 20:53, Jean-Claude Guédon
> <jean.claude.guedon at umontreal.ca> wrote:
> 

> 
> 
> Which terms have been introduced by the publishing industry? The
> majority of the terms that I see regularly were introduced - or at
> least claimed to have been - by scholars.


Who introduced "hybrid journals"? "who introduced "delayed open access"
- an oxymoron if there ever was one? What about Elsevier's "universal
access"? etc. etc.
> 
> 
> The publishing industry has been fairly quick to make use of the
> variety of terms though - some in attempting to best engage with and
> understand the needs and desires of the academic community; others to
> preserve their business models for as long as possible.


Fairly quick indeed! :-) 
> 
> 
[snip (because irrelevant]

> 
> 
> Profits alone are not a good measure of whether the public purse is
> being pillaged or not. They are just the difference between revenue
> and costs. At which point:
> 
> 
> 1) Publisher revenue does not just come from the public purse - sales
> to privately funded institutions, personal subscriptions, reprints,
> advertising...
> 
> 
> 2) For everything that they do (which may or may not be appropriate),
> the publishing industry is very, very good at reducing costs.
> 
> 
> Ultimately, the public purse is not necessarily disadvantaged by
> engaging with for-profit industries; although it could benefit from
> ensuring there are competitive markets. You can argue that the
> publishing industry could stand to reduce it's profits by charging
> less - but there is no guarantee that an alternative would take less
> money overall from the public purse.


Profits alone begin to indicate where the problem lies, just by
comparison between publishers. Enough money comes from the public purse
in many countries (Canada, for example, or most European countries) to
justify my anger. As for point 2, it is quite laughable. Why does not
Elsevier reduce its profit rate then? The answer is that each journal is
a small monopoly in itself. And in monopoly situations, what is the
incentive to reduce pricing?


>         
> 
> 
> From free and low cost access programmes, through APC waivers, and
> charitable partnerships, the publishing industry does a lot more for
> developing nations than the picture you are painting.


Having looked fairly closely at programmes like HINARI, I beg to differ.
The publishing industry is very creative when it comes to growing fig
leaves.
> 
> 
> Is it perfect? No. Could more be done? Probably. Can the industry do
> it alone? No.


It would be a lot cheaper if the industry got out of the way.
> 
> 
> If you want to see the situation improve, then it's going to take
> funders and researchers to work with the publishing industry.


I would rather see funders support publicly supported efforts such as
Scielo or Redalyc in Latin America. The publishing industry does not
need yet another subsidy to begin expanding its potential markets.
> 
> 
> Or you could try and ignore the industry entirely. But simply
> depositing research in institutional repositories does not necessarily
> solve developing nation's access problems, and does not necessarily
> solve their publishing problems.
> 

Your last point is correct, at least until now. Laws such as the one
recently passed in Argentina may help further. But you are right: in
developing nations, the best way is to avoid the industry entirely and
develop evaluation methods that are a little more sophisticated than the
impact factor misapplied to individuals.

Jean-Claude Guédon

> 
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-- 

Jean-Claude Guédon
Professeur titulaire
Littérature comparée
Université de Montréal

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