[Tugindia] [OT] article on (open) scientific publishing

[CV Radhakrishnan]

>>>>> "Ajit" == Ajit Ranade <akr at linux-delhi.org> writes:

    Ajit> the indian outsourced industry of scientific publishing will
    Ajit> probably reach 500 million dollars soon, and is growing
    Ajit> vigorously. but its growth depends on companies like
    Ajit> elsevier, whose profit margins are hefty, and which enjoys a
    Ajit> near monopoly worldwide. this monopoly is under threat, not
    Ajit> just from regulators, but from the science community, who
    Ajit> feel that access to research findings must be kept
    Ajit> open. currently most research articles' copyright passes
    Ajit> from author to elsevier, and access is restricted and very
    Ajit> expensive. (some stats: annually 1.2m articles gets
    Ajit> published in 16k periodicals. cornell university's library
    Ajit> budget went up by 149 percent in 15 years, but number of
    Ajit> periodicals went up by only 5 percent.)

Thanks Ajit. You did the job, I was about to post the article to the
list!

I was curiously watching the developments relating to open access
journal initiatives worldwide, primarily the initiatives of Public
Library of Science and Berlin Declaration in which Elsevier too sent
their delegates!  Nothing substantive happened except wild screams
about open access.

Two factors count much -- (1) the technologies of text processing, its
various delivery formats and delivery systems (2) who will foot the
bill?

Unless the above two factors are answered satisfactorily, open access
movements will not be able to compete with publishers like Elsevier.
Needless to say that still more global experiments/initiatives are in
the horizon, which will become reality very soon (of course with
Indian participation) where the above two issues are addressed to a
reasonable level.

Best

Radhakrishnan