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More OA at ScienceBlogs January 31, 2007

Posted by ocmpoma in : open access , trackback

If you aren’t tired of all the OA stuff I’ve been posting about here, there is even more to read on it at the ScienceBlogs:

A Blog Around the Clock,

The Questionable Authority (responding to a comment left at ABATC),

and again at TQA.

One thing that I would like to point out in reference to the “open access isn’t free” spiel:

Publishing online (as evidenced by… say… this blog) is a whole hell of a lot cheaper, easier to distribute, easier to access, easier to search through, easier to weave interconnections into (imagine scientific papers where the references were all equipped with links to the papers and passages referenced), easier to archive, easier to store, easier to maintain, and more effective than paper publishing. So, whenever you see “OA isn’t free”, remember that, when it’s combined with a paperless journal, OA is better.

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Comments»

1. Traum - 1 February 3:03

This whole battle is so like the RIAA’s war on piracy. You might enjoy the article in Salon outlining Musician “costs.”

They grossed $11 million.

It costs $500,000 to manufacture the CDs and they advanced the band $1 million. Plus there were $1 million in video costs, $300,000 in radio promotion and $200,000 in tour support.

The company also paid $750,000 in music publishing royalties.

They spent $2.2 million on marketing. That’s mostly retail advertising, but marketing also pays for those huge posters of Marilyn Manson in Times Square and the street scouts who drive around in vans handing out black Korn T-shirts and backwards baseball caps. Not to mention trips to Scores and cash for tips for all and sundry.

Add it up and the record company has spent about $4.4 million.

So their profit is $6.6 million; the band may as well be working at a 7-Eleven.

2. Traum - 1 February 3:04

Sorry, forgot the link.

http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/print.html

3. ocmpoma - 1 February 5:49

Indeed. Open Access is most often used to refer to scientific papers; however, the idea itself can refer to anything. While I don’t think that the idea of free access to music would cut it (the band’s gotta make cash somehow) I do hope that record labels could soon become a thing of the past, at least as we know them now.

4. Traum - 1 February 13:43

“Paying the Artist/Author” is the RIAA’s argument as well, but actually in the music industry, very little of the money ends up in their hands, and I expect that the same is true in Academia.

One valuable contribution that the Publishing community does bring though is screening and with it, adds some amount of credibility to the finished work. I believe that once that hurdle is crossed…the marking of Scientific Papers as “Credible” by some reliable source, I predict the Academic Publishers will fade away. Suing customers is bad for business.

5. Traum Attic » Blog Archive - 1 February 13:57

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