From: Fred Jenkins <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 20:56:00 -0500 Jim, Good points all. I find it interesting that so much discussion focuses on the economics, while we often neglect the question of who is reading all this stuff. As we move more to payment on the author end (whether author or institution), the motivation for the publisher to demand something of exceptional quality or of interest to a fair number of readers rapidly goes down. I can cancel a journal if it doesn't find readers on my campus, but there is still pressure to pay APCs needed to stuff someone's cv and advance their career. The divorce of readership from the economics of publishing should be of much more concern that it seems to be. Nor do the optics of paying to publish, however framed, look good to a public that already has grave doubts about the value of the academic enterprise. I will see your Daniel and raise you an Ecclesiastes (12.12): Faciendi plures libros nullus est finis, frequensque meditatio, carnis afflictio est. Fred red W. Jenkins, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Collections and Operations, University Libraries Professor, University Libraries and Department of Religious Studies University of Dayton Non minima pars eruditionis est bonos nosse libros.--J.J. Scaliger On Mon, Nov 11, 2019 at 7:05 PM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 09:11:49 -0700 > > Brian Simboli -- > > I will respond to one only of your many interesting points in your > Charleston reflections, but have profited from the whole post. > > You are right to observe that the demand for journal publishing is a > variable that grows in various ways beyond control. (1) Increases in > research funding from existing sources. (2) Incentive researchers feel > even in a steady state funding environment to slice-and-dice their work > (and sometimes recycle bits of it) into as many publications as possible. > (3) Disproportionate growth in research activity and thus article > productivity in emerging research economies, notably India and China but > also increasingly the new universities of the Arabic world. The best > indicator of this demand boom is the ugly phenomenon of the predatory > journal universe: yes, they are con men, but even con men need suckers to > give them money, and the size and growth of the predatory world is among > other things a measure of growth in overall demand. > > Of course this development was long foretold by the prophet Daniel: "Many > shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Dan. 12.4). > Medieval writers took this as a caution about Babel-like proliferation, but > we are more inclined to join happily in the running to and fro. So we > (library and research community) haven't much tried to manage that demand, > but it is an undoubted factor in making the whole system of publication > difficult to sustain under any regime. > > Jim O'Donnell > ASU > > > On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 6:17 PM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> From: Brian Simboli <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2019 12:12:30 -0500 >> >> [usual boilerplate--apologies for cross-posting] >> >> If this week's Charleston conference was any indication, Plan S is >> definitely advancing in the U.S. >> >> In its wake, here are some Socratic questions that hopefully extend the >> philosophical and economic points I've already made about >> transformative/plan S schemes. >> >> These questions concern long-run consequences, but are nonetheless very >> timely. Near term decisions have long run effects. >> > [SNIP] > [Views are solely my own, as usual] >> >> Brian Simboli >> -- >> >> Brian Simboli >> Science, Mathematics, and Psychology Librarian >> Library and Technology Services >> E.W. Fairchild Martindale >> Lehigh University >> 8A East Packer Avenue >> Bethlehem, PA 18015-3170 >> (610) 758-5003; [log in to unmask] >> Profile & Research guides <http://libraryguides.lehigh.edu/prf.php?account_id=13461> >> >>