Harvard tells faculty to go Open Access and drop participation in overpriced journals from commercial publishers. The title is misleading. If anyone can afford ridiculously expensive journal subscriptions, Harvard can. The issue is only partly a financial one, and mostly a moral one and a practical one. With the success of free and open access publications (some of which operate with a budget close to $0, like JMLR), commercial publisher have become superfluous. Their continued influence is entirely due to the inertia of the scientific community when it comes to prestige. Publishers used to be in the business of disseminating scientific information for a fee. They are now in the business of restricting access to scientific information to make huge profits. Its immoral, and it strives on the inertia of the scientific community.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 12:18:48 +0000