COLLOQUY

THE QUESTION

RESPONSES

BACKGROUND

Ransdell does not believe this is Koonin's real goal, even though Koonin himself has indicated in this colloquy that it is, and that he would be perfectly happy to see his joint copyright policy implemented only at the point of formal acceptance and publication by the journal (thereby answering Ransdell's worries that the intent is to BLOCK publication) and with an explicit formal clause guaranteeing the author's right to archive publicly on-line for free in perpetuo (thereby underscoring the true objective of the exercise).

I am concerned that Ransdell's last posting on this topic seems to have put an end to the colloquy, perhaps out of sympathy with the goal of redressing other academic inequities, worthy of attention in themselves, with which Ransdell has implied that the joint copyright issue is linked. I believe that link is bogus.

The real issue is quite simple: There currently exists a learned serial literature, largely in the extremely costly and highly inefficient paper medium. Is there a way to make that literature available on-line, for free for all?

I believe the answer is yes, and that this outcome can be attained without first having to solve the many problems of academic inequity. It is short-sighted and defeatist to suppose that the one is contingent on the other. Any support that would prevent authors from being prevented by copyright from publicly archiving their papers would be a welcome help.

We should not let worthy but irrelevant causes obstruct or obscure the road to the optimal and the inevitable for refereed journal publication.

If the Koonin proposal would not help, we should hear the reasons; a priori suspicions about the goals of provosts are not reasons.

-- Stevan Harnad, Professor of Cognitive Science, Southampton University (posted 10/19, 11:25 a.m., E.D.T.)

previous response

next response

STEP 1: Your contact information (required)

Your name:

Your title & institution:

Your phone:

Your e-mail address:

STEP 2: Your comments (required)

STEP 3: Submit!

Check this box if you would like this submission to be considered for publication as a letter to the editor in the printed Chronicle.