- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic journals
by Barry Saunders 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

I've wanted to join in this debate for a while, but I've been busy going through the papers for an open-access journal I'm editing, called Media-Culture. I'm working on it with the evil defender of locked-down academic publishing, Jason Wilson, and let me tell you, it's hard. He's all like, let's lock this mofo down and charge access, because only the cool kids deserve to read our awesome articles. MOO HOO HA HAA HAA HA AND WE WILL BE EVIL SENIOR PROFESSORS MOO HOO HA HA HAHA. Ahem. I'm all for open-access. I got into academia via Indymedia. All my work is published on Eprints and/or my blogs, under a CC licence where possible. I do think open-access journals are the way of the future, but we aren't there yet. As Barry Wellman pointed out, running a journal costs money, and sometimes access fees are the only way to get that funding. The example of community media and citizen media is quite illustrative - many publications start out by charging for access to ensure their survival until they can move to a sustainable funding model. Boycotting them will only kill the publication - not a particularly good move for an emerging field. Community media is also illustrative for what happens when the commitment to open-access overtakes everything else - those people who work on the publication are no longer paid, and the people who take over are usually comfortable middle class people who can spare the time to help out. That can mean the difference between a hard hitting, class conscious publication and middle-class pabulum. I'm not so sure that open-editing, which appears to have been suggested here, will work for academic publishing. Wikipedia works, for the most part, because articles there take a neutral point of view. Using wikis for argument, by and large, doesn't work. Wikipedia is for documentation, not argumentation. Open-access argument is Indymedia or sometimes Metafilter. Sometimes interesting, sometimes garbage, rarely above pedestrian. It's also worth noting that doubleblind peer review WORKS. It is one of the few mechanisms available that redresses the gender bias in academic writing. Any open-editing system for academic publications would have to take that into account. http://blogs.nature.com/peer-to-peer/2008/01/doubleblind_peer_review_reveal… Lastly, if this is the level of academic discussion and argumentation that an open, internet-mediated journal would have.... Hoo boy. I've had more elucidating discussions on Digg. -- Barry Saunders ---- http://investigativeblog.net http://gatewatching.org http://d-notice.net ---- PhD Candidate // researcher http://creativeindustries.qut.edu.au http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Saunders,_Barry.html skype: barry_saunders CRICOS No. 00213J On 10/2/08 2:14 PM, "Christian Nelson" <xianknelson(a)mac.com> wrote: On Feb 9, 2008, at 10:37 PM, Jason Wilson wrote: > a decision to immediately boycott all closed-source journals could > only be premised on a reductive analysis of how academic publishing > works, and by ignoring what the people within this system are > trying to achieve, and more importantly, what they've done already. Oh, how nobly they do strive for us! We should all be ashamed of having suggested otherwise.

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grants in innovative literature and arts
by Jeremy Hunsinger 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

OPEN FOR SUBMISSION: FEBRUARY 4 – MARCH 4, 2008 Please forward widely! If you are working on an exciting emerging fields, literature, or performing arts project we encourage you to apply in our upcoming grant round. For general information and guidelines, please visit:http://creative-capital.org/application/ To apply for a Creative Capital grant, you must first submit an Inquiry Form regarding your project. Tell us about your project and how, in conjunction with a Creative Capital grant, it will be catalytic for your artistic and professional growth. In addition, you will need to describe the influences that inform your work and how your work takes an inventive and original approach to form and content. Be prepared to present a basic budget and to identify the audience(s) for your project and any possible presenting venues. The Guidelines and Inquiry Form for will be available on the Creative Capital website from February 4 to March 4, 2008. It will be available at http://creative-capital.org/application/ found @ http://newmediafix.net/daily/?p=1840 Jeremy Hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu ) Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --Byron

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Re: [Air-L] open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic journals
by Jason Wilson 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

"I'm editor of a corporate-owned journal, but I also prefer a model of sustainable open access and independent media [mostly I'm just an academic schlepping through various challenges like everyone else]. I hope that some of us who are editors of journals owned by conglomerates might try to edge the decision-makers toward positioning journals so that access is more freely available and, perhaps eventually, toward changing business-as-usual." Thank you Lisa, for expressing succinctly what the vast majority of us in academe, and academic publishing, try to do. It's impossible to disagree with the claim (which is therefore actually a platitude) that it would be better for everyone if scholarly research were freely available to whomever wanted to use it. I've heard people who actually work in academic publishing say the same thing. But a decision to immediately boycott all closed-source journals could only be premised on a reductive analysis of how academic publishing works, and by ignoring what the people within this system are trying to achieve, and more importantly, what they've done already. It might play well to the crowd, but it also ignores the affordances of the apparatuses of academic publishing - including its capacity to facilitate considered responses to complex problems. The logical extension of a boycott, of course, is not publishing books with closed-source publishers, and indeed not making any appearance in any medium or forum that doesn't relay its content openly, right now. I wonder if people have thought this course of action through, or if they're actually prepared to take this as far as the underlying logic of their argument demands. Working with publishers might actually help to achieve concrete goals like having them open up their massive archives (under conditions of a boycott, where's their incentive to do this?) and crucially it would help to maintain the communities around existing journals. Do we really want a journal like Feminist Media Studies to disappear because of a submissions boycott? Putting it in concrete terms like this might help us actually think about the possible consequences of big ideas like this. Big publishers might be a lot less discomfited - at the level of the bottom line - by the disappearance of some fantastic humanities journals than we'd like to think, and it would mostly be scholars who'd suffer. Isn't it better, more effective, to simply do all you can to support emerging open access journals - including publishing your research there, acting as a peer reviewer, guest editing, like so many of us already do - and at the same time work at encouraging publishers towards open-access (they're heading that way - all they need is a business model - do we really think that they're not apprised of these issues too?). Isn't anything else just grandstanding, or fundamentalism? I'll declare my interest - I'm Reviews Editor of Convergence. That's the journal that danah decided to name in her original post, having just been published in the special issue on Convergence Culture. Jason Wilson Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address. www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail

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SciTechNet(sm): Science and Technology Social Networking Services
by Gerry Mckiernan 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

***APOLOGIES FOR RECEIPT OF DUPLICATE POSTINGS*** Colleagues/ In addition to my _Scholarship 2.0_ blog [ http://scholarship20.blogspot.com/ ], I have a blog titled _SciTechNet(sm): Science and Technology Social Networking Services_. SciTechNet(sm) is devoted to "describing and documenting online social networking services in the Sciences and Technology" and is located at [ http://scitechnet.blogspot.com/ ] Postings include: >PLoS ONE: A Post-Publication-Peer-Reviewed-Open-Access-E-Journal PLoS ONE is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online journal." It "features reports of primary research from all disciplines within science and medicine. By not excluding papers on the basis of subject area, PLoS ONE facilitates the discovery of the connections between papers whether within or between disciplines." "Each submission will be assessed by a member of the PLoS ONE Editorial Board before publication. This pre-publication peer review will concentrate on technical rather than subjective concerns and may involve discussion with other members of the Editorial Board and/or the solicitation of formal reports from independent referees. >>If published, papers will be made available for community-based open peer review involving online annotation, discussion, and rating" << "PLoS ONE will publish all papers that are judged to be rigorous and technically sound. Papers published in PLoS ONE will be available for commenting and debate by the readers, making every paper the start of a scientific conversation." "Judgments about the importance of any particular paper are then made after publication" [http://www.plosone.org/static/whypublish.action] [ http://scitechnet.blogspot.com/2007/12/plos-one-post-publication-peer-revie…] >> 2collab >>2collab Formally Launched >>2collab Video (Beta) >chemistry.org/exchange >Nature Network Nominations Of Other SciTech Networks For The SciTechNet(sm) Blog Are Most Welcome! Regards, /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 gerrymck(a)iastate.edu There is Nothing More Powerful Than An Idea Whose Time Has Come Victor Hugo [ http://www.blogger.com/profile/09093368136660604490 ] Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind Blows ... [ http://www.alternativeenergyblogs.blogspot.com/ ]

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open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic journals
by danah boyd 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

At AOIR this year, we heard a lot about open-access journals and the future of academic publishing. These talks were extremely well- received. At the same time, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of us came back home and continued to publish with the same respected journals that we've always published with. I've certainly seen a lot of CFPs from folks wanting to publish issues in locked-down journals. Today, an article of mine was finally published in Sage's Convergence series. I should be excited by this, but I'm actually quite depressed. While I'm lucky to be visible enough that some folks will find out about my article and ask me for a copy, most of the articles in that issue will barely get read because they are virtually inaccessible. Additionally, while scholars will ask me for my article, most policymakers and technologists will not, even though the article is probably more relevant to them than it is to you. I believe that the locked-down nature of this publishing regime silences academics while capitalizing off of our free labor at every turn. I think that this is unfair, unacceptable, and irresponsible. Thus, since I'm a blogger, I wrote a ranty blog entry about the topic: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/06/openaccess_is_t.html In said ranty blog entry, I laid out a set of steps for how to proceed to make change. For example, I think that all tenured faculty have a responsibility to stop publishing in locked-down journals and help build up the reputations of open-access ones. (I even believe that those who flout journal's restrictions by publishing their pieces on their websites are failing future generations by not pushing for change to happen.) I offer steps for scholars, libraries, universities, tenure committees, disciplinary associations, and scholars at all stages. In short, I'd like to see a boycott of locked-down academic journals. I think that it's particularly critical in our field since we are doing work that is relevant beyond the academy. I think that we need to stand in solidarity to stop this abuse of our labor and this silencing of our voices. Am I crazy? danah

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powerful senior professors
by Jonathan Sterne, Dr. 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

Christian Nelson's understanding of the editorial process seems a bit naive. First, I'm not sure that open access journals ought to have open source reviewing. Knowledge is not necessarily democratic: there are people who know more about their fields than others, and frankly, I'd like THOSE people to review my work when I submit it to a journal. One of the great values of the humanities and social sciences (and indeed all basic research) is that learned people are allow to pursue lines of inquiry whose immediate payoff may not be immediately apparent to others. Academics should not be subject to popularity contests or ratings. CNET is very useful for what it is, but it is not a model for scholarship. More often than not, leading figures in a field don't do a lot of journal reviewing because they're too busy with other kinds of reviewing, like tenure dossiers (this has certainly happened to me, and I'm not even full yet). I also find that senior, leading figures are just as likely to be MORE open minded to new ideas and new approaches than younger scholars, who may have more invested in advancing or defending a particular paradigm as they establish themselves. Of course there are also tenured professors who appear to eat their own brains, so I guess we can't generalize too much in this regard. Open access, yes, but with a solid, blind peer review. In that respect, IJOC is a fine example. Best, --Jonathan

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Disruptive Scholarship
by Gerry Mckiernan 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

Colleagues/ I am pleased to read the variety of recent posting about Open Access and Alternative Scholarship. On Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2007, I launched a new blog titled _Scholarship 2.0: An Idea Whose Time Has Come_ _Scholarship 2.0_ is located at [ http://scholarship20.blogspot.com/ ]

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Re: [Air-L] open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic journals
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

This one has prompted me to respond! ... This is such an odd view of "powerful academics". It is precisely the "powerful academics", aka tenured and/or full Professors, who can afford to go to these new venues. Moreover, if work is not getting full play in journals -- because of the invisibility and inaccessibilty of print journals or fee-based online journals -- then why wouldn't we all flock to online publishing to gain the 'power' of widespread access. So, why don't we? -- because, believe it or not, many of us actually have put time and energy into journals -- setting them up, reviewing papers, considering the standards of good research, argumentation and knowledge, and wanting to make it worth someone taking the time to open up a journal, and for those outside our discipline to take us seriously as a discipline. Yes, it is a gatekeeper role, and I'm proud to be part of it as should be all others who strive for quality in their work and *their* journals. /Caroline ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:37:15 -0500 >From: Christian Nelson <xianknelson(a)mac.com> >Subject: Re: [Air-L] open-access is the future: boycott locked-down academic journals >To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > >We're still talking about open-source journals that would utilize >some sort of reader rating system to make editorial decisions, right? >Why would powerful academics leave the current set of journals, over >which they have total editorial control, for journals over which they >would have considerably less control, considering that journal >article publication is the main source of academic capital for most >scholars? No one ever gives up power willingly. > >On Feb 8, 2008, at 4:25 PM, Jimmy Wales wrote: > >> So yes, I agree: luring big names is part of what has to be done. >> I just don't find that particularly daunting. >_______________________________________________ >The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/ ---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820

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Fwd: Invitation to join the Document Freedom Day 2008
by Jeremy Hunsinger 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

> > > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Georg C. F. Greve" <greve(a)fsfeurope.org> >> Date: 08 February 2008 12:03:23 PM >> To: greve(a)fsfeurope.org >> Subject: Invitation to join the Document Freedom Day 2008 >> >> Dear colleagues, >> >> advocating Free Software towards various people and groups is often >> made >> more difficult by their legacy of data lock-in. Migration to some >> seems >> a choice of gaining their freedom by losing all their old data, and >> in >> too many cases that is unfortunately true enough. >> >> The logical answer to this are Open Standards that give everyone the >> freedom to use, study and implement them. But most people don't know >> much about this issue and generally don't take care to save their >> data >> in ways that allow them to choose and live in freedom. >> >> There has been some debate about this through the years, with >> particular >> focus around the Open Document Format (ODF) due to current events. >> >> In this group, people have been discussing the idea of a "Document >> Freedom Day" for some time - and FSFE's Serbian team now jumped at >> the >> possibility and took initiative for the Document Freedom Day, which >> will >> advocate freedom of data in the area that everyone has a direct >> relationship to -- documents -- to raise awareness about the >> principles. >> >> The Document Freedom Day is planned as a complimentary activity to >> the >> Software Freedom Day - so the two are placed six months apart: The >> first >> Document Freedom Day will be held 26 March 2008. >> >> The message of the DFD will be focussed on benefits of freedom in >> data >> and formats, specifically the Open Document Format (ODF) and the >> relevance of Open Standards. >> >> You can find the (still rudimentary) web site at >> >> http://www.documentfreedom.org >> >> and you are very much invited to join this effort as an >> organisation and >> get personally involved. >> >> If you know others who might have an interest in this activity, >> please >> feel free to also invite them. But please avoid blogging about this >> before the first official announcement, as we would prefer to add >> some >> more information first. >> >> With best regards, >> Georg >> >> -- >> Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org >> > >> Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org >> ) >> Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom! (http://www.fsfe.org >> ) >> What everyone should know about DRM (http://DRM.info >> ) > jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu ) wiki.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ Learning Inquiry-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series

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Open access
by Jonathan Sterne 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

Hi All, I just want to add my voice in support of danah's. I got radicalized about open access when Sage and their lawyers tried to give me a DRMed author's copy of (amusingly enough) an essay I wrote on the very promiscuous mp3 format for _New Media and Society_. The problem was that they decided I, as an author, actually ought to have fewer rights than I would as a reader using my library's copy of the journal. I'm probably a little too vain to totally give up on non-open access journals (there are a few I'd love to have on my CV) but my plan is to go open access whenever possible from here on out. My Sage experience is documented here: http://superbon.net/?p=449 http://superbon.net/?p=461 Best, --Jonathan -- Jonathan Sterne Associate Professor and Chair Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University http://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs/ http://sterneworks.org

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