[meteorite-list] Not OT-- set our journals free!

From: Aubrey Whymark <tinbider_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:34:05 +0000 (GMT)
Message-ID: <335360.30662.qm_at_web28508.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Hi

I thought that anything paid for by the US taxpayer had to be public access - hence all the NASA articles available free.

Personally the standard $30 charge a paper disgusts me and serves to obstruct science. You used to be able to buy paper copies much cheaper - now they are online you would think they would be cheaper - but instead they are 10 times more expensive! $30 for one A4 page!?! I try and get my papers from geological/astronomical libraries or second hand books/journals. Buying digital copies would bankrupt me - and it annoys me because tax payers funded the research and these companies extort the profit. With the decline in print copies it won't be long before online purchase is the only option and then with these giants like Elsevier we will all suffer and private researchers will be no more. If Elsevier or other big publishers want to hold the copyright then they should pay for the ENTIRE research / Ph.D. - if they don't then the article should be publicly available if funded by the public. I hope there are new laws on copyright before scientific articles are
 only available to the very wealthy. No problems with a $10-15 charge to cover costs plus some profit, but these prices are crazy. I've complained, but I never get a reply! Maybe it is time that people refuse to publish with these guys and go with journals that offer free or cheap online access (but still peer reviewed) - at least people could then afford to read the article. Now there's an idea for a webpage!

Regards, Aubrey
www.tektites.co.uk




--- On Sat, 12/12/09, Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net> wrote:

> From: Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Not OT-- set our journals free!
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Saturday, 12 December, 2009, 20:53
> We've all seen it-- some new paper
> (on meteorites or not) comes out from a
> publicly funded entity, paid by US taxpayers, but to read
> the paper, you must
> pay an obscene fee (such as $20 to have access to 1 article
> for 24 hours-- or
> some similar rate-- from _Science_.)
>
> Here's a chance to give TPTB a little feedback on that:
>
> http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2009/12/comment-on-acce.html
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Received on Sun 13 Dec 2009 12:34:05 PM PST