Dear Michael Guerstein, First, many thanks for that link and the intresting papers contained on that site. I look forward to seeing it grow. You raised some issues in your last paragraph, issues which others should feel free to address as well. I'd like to say a few words here about what those issues brought to mind. Given the costs associated with private and in-print publications, sometimes owned by corporations and imposing certain constraints on academic managers, and given the fact that most libraries simply cannot keep up, then why do so many academics (especially in the social sciences) persist in seeking publication in paper journals, paper books, etc.? Is it to fulfill some deep dark tree killing lust? Just teasing of course. Seriously, when one discovers that the 20 page journal article is mandated by a cost analysis in producing the journal--otherwise, what is the magic behind 20 pages--rather than letting an author have all the leeway necessary to effectively make a solid argument, I worry about writing getting bottom-lined to death. Then of course there is the illusory aura of prestige: "we reject over 80% of articles received!" Wow, great, you can follow orders. My own suspicion is that the answer to this question has something to do with prestige, legitimacy or authority. For a recent edited volume due to be published later this year, another contributor, who also acted as an anonymous reviewer, lambasted me for citing so many articles that are available online, claiming that Internet-based sources are "not credible", and this is an Internet researcher speaking. Of course, I had to take issue with that, as I myself happen to edit a peer reviewed e-journal, and I found the assumptions underlying this person's paper fetishes to be almost offensive. Moreover, coincidentally while attacking my use of articles in e-journals, that individual referred me to some of the work by Barry Wellman...oddly enough, the work I had listed in my References for Wellman was for an online article of his. I would like to ask list members not just for their opinions on this issue, but also ask some concrete details: 1. If you are based in an academic institution, does publication in e-journals count for less 'points' when being considered for promotion and tenure? 2. Which of the social scientific e-journals about the Internet are peer reviewed? I am guessing that the Journal for Computer Mediated Communication is one of them. Are there any others as well? Many thanks and all the best, Max. Dr. Maximilian C. Forte Editor CARIBBEAN AMERINDIAN CENTRELINK http://www.centrelink.org Editor KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology http://www.kacike.org ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Gurstein" <mgurst@vcn.bc.ca> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 11:52 AM Subject: RE: [Air-l] Encyclopedia of Community
Forsooth, Barry...
I think that I'm one of the two authors that you are pointing to in your note and I think it might be useful to raise this issue here.
I was delighted when the Encyclopedia you referred to invited me to do an article on Community Informatics/Community Based Technologies. And as I normally do, I procrastinated in reading the contract while I finished the article.
Having finished the article and having corresponded with the company, I was about to send in the article when they insisted that I send in a signed contract.
I then took the time to read the contract and I must admit I was appalled.
The terms of the contract, which I can dig out if anyone is interested basically indicated that I was turning over to them, essentially for free, all rights to this article which they specified should be completely original and not published in any other place or any other format. Furthermore, they stated that I could not publish this material in any other form or location (including on the web) without being in breach.
Now since this was an encyclopedia article in an area in which I do much of my publishing strictly speaking I was turning over to the publisher essentially for nothing a potentially considerable part of my current and future intellectual capital. I also was reflecting on an earlier and quite unsatisfactory experience with a publisher who chose to price my work completely out of its appropriate market based on a business model which I consider to be pernicious in the extreme.
At that point I began to look around on the net. I am aware, as I'm sure all of you are, that this type of approach to publishing is currently standard in academia although the issue of publishing in an encyclopedia meant to be a standard reference guide is somewhat different from publishing research in a research journal.
I discovered to my considerable interest that there is quite a lot of activity concerning the matter of intellectual property at the moment (given the attempts by many to make the IP laws even more restrictive than they currently are) and the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) among others are developing and making available draft contracts which are much more balanced in the rights of authors versus publishers as for example
http://www.alpsp.org/grantli.pdf
and
http://www.surf.nl/copyright/keyissues/scholarlycommunication/agreements.php
I suggested to this publisher that perhaps they might agree to one of the draft contracts available through one of these websites. After a fairly extensive correspondence they declined and I then declined to have my article published by them. (The main issue in most of these draft agreements appears to be republishing rights on the web...)
In part as a result of this experience, I am, with colleagues currently developing an open source, open archive text book in the area of Community Informatics with the intention that the material be freely available on
the
net--my piece for the encyclopedia (along with a number of others) is now available at http://www.ci-text.dr.ag/ -->Submitted Papers. (Feel free to reproduce any of the items on this website as long as the authorship is acknowledged and they are not reproduced for resale.)
Since one gets essentially nothing from publishers such as this, there is little loss in publishing open archive on the Net and quite a bit to gain from a much broader circulation of one's material and the knowledge that one's work may be accessible to all those who might benefit from having access and not simply those who can afford the truly exorbitant prices that these publishers are charging.
Additional contributors to our text book are welcome...
Best,
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. Visiting Professor: School of Management New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org]On Behalf Of Barry Wellman Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 3:14 PM To: aoir list Cc: monica murero Subject: [Air-l] Encyclopedia of Community
Just to clarify Monica Murero's Encyclopedia posting:
It is the Encyclopedia of Communty, to be published by Sage this June. It contains 49 articles about the internet (et al) and community, including a very nice one in which Monica is the lead author. I edited all of them
(And a pox on the 2 readers of this list who defaulted on their articles at the very end, putting tremendous stress on me and the 2 wonderful people who jumped in as replacement authors -- they're also readers of this list.)
Howevever, the 49 articles are only 1/8 of the entire Encyclopedia. It's in 4 volumes. It also has 650 leads to popular books, movies, etc on community -- Many thanks to the list readers who responded with suggestions. We used most of them.
The bad news is that the book is expensive. 500+ USD -- which means that effectively only libraries and Microsoft employees can afford it!
I have been trying to get Sage to publish a revised version of our 49 internet/community articles as a separate book, but they haven't agreed now. Perhaps after they do their library sales, we will have better luck. Of course, we are a fast moving field, and I'd face the task of editing 49 articles again, but 45/49 were a joy to work with -- thanks to all of you.
Barry ___________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman@chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 ___________________________________________________________________
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