The Stray World

If you have had to do any form of research work in a uni­ver­sity, you would have encountered that one or two vital papers that is unavail­able for use because your uni­ver­sity lib­rary does not sub­scribed to the journ­als they belong to.

The reason is as every­one in the research com­munity knows, journal pub­lish­ers are led by greedy gob­lins who have no interest in the dis­sem­in­a­tion of know­ledge unless it has an obscene profit margin.

It turns out that Har­vard, yes that Har­vard, agrees that the situ­ation is unten­able — and have issued a memor­andum to all fac­ulties, schools, and units to com­mit to pub­lish­ing to open or more fin­an­cially sus­tain­able journ­als.

One of the options given to fac­ulty mem­bers in pub­lish­ing ham­mers the point across like a nail struck with the might of a thou­sand Romans:

3. If on the edit­or­ial board of a journal involved, determ­ine if it can be pub­lished as open access mater­ial, or inde­pend­ently from pub­lish­ers that prac­tice pri­cing described above. If not, con­sider resign­ing (F).

Do read the entire state­ment, it is a thing of beauty. It appears the pro­gress to an aca­demic com­munity based upon open journ­als could hap­pen within the year, once all other major insti­tu­tions jump on board as well.