Re: RE : [cmath] Campaign against Elsevier

[Christiane Rousseau]

Dear colleagues, 

I will add to the voice of André. The International Mathematical Union (IMU) and the International COuncil of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) are precisely nominating a Committee to study the pricing of journals. And this committee will look at the IMU blog on journals http://blog.mathunion.org/journals/

So it is best to put your contributions on this blog. 

Best wishes, Christiane 

Le 2012-01-27 à 15:20, Joyal, André a écrit :

> Dear Tomasz Kaczynski and colleagues,
> 
> You wrote,
> 
> > a fundamental discussion on public research and
> > authors rights versus publisher's rights is due
> 
> The International Mathematical Union (IMU) has a blog for that:
> 
> http://blog.mathunion.org/journals/
> 
> Certainly, we should continue discussing but
> there is a need for concrete action.
> 
> David Savitt wrote (http://thecostofknowledge.com):
> 
> > Certainly one can debate whether Elsevier is the right specific target,
> > but I do think that if one wants to build some sort of movement,
> > it’s best to start out in a relatively specific way.
> > Targeting a particular bad behavior in a broad way may leave so few alternatives
> > as to be impractical for many individuals, and if individuals can’t make a pledge and stick to it
> > then one isn’t going to get anywhere. You also have to ask, pragmatically,
> > what’s going to get a large number of people to participate? A
> > high-minded commitment to a broad principle takes much more effort than a boycott
> > of a specific company.
> 
> Best regards,
> André
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------- Message d'origine--------
> De: cmath-bounces at cms.math.ca de la part de Tomasz Kaczynski
> Date: ven. 27/01/2012 11:44
> À: Nassif Ghoussoub; CMath E-Mail Distribution List
> Cc: department at math.ubc.ca; Profs-Math
> Objet : Re: [cmath] Campaign against Elsevier
> 
> Dear Nassif, Dear colleagues,
> 
> I am sympathetic with voices of deception with current publishing 
> practices but I don't know why this attack is explicitly on Elsevier, 
> while
> 
> 1. The problem is general and it concerns all leading scientific 
> publishers, with Elsevier ex aequo Springer. Please see this paper 
> which appeared in The Guardian online half an year ago:
> 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist
> 
> For example, in the blog one says about "bundles" of Elsevier: From 
> 2010 on, our library has been pushed to purchase a bundle of All 
> Springer electronic books in Math, leaving not too much funds for 
> books from other publishers. Another example, Elsevier charges $ 
> 31.40/paper, Springer $34.95.
> 
> 2. The article cited above presents objections which are more 
> fundamental in nature than charging high prices: it is about 
> monopolizing the knowledge acquired from public funds. But it occurred 
> to me that actually Elsevier is the Publisher who's  attitude to 
> Author's Rights e.g. concerning the free on-line distribution of 
> author's own preprints seems to be the most flexible, see this new 
> reformed policy:
> 
> http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/rights
> 
> In the view of this policy, the author may not only keep a preprint on 
> his web page (or in arxiv) but even update it by incorporating 
> suggestions from referees (who also are paid from public funds, not by 
> the Publisher) provided there is no involvement of the Publisher's 
> team in producing the preprint version. So, regardless of how much 
> Elsevier charges for their final version, whether or not the public 
> research is publically released, depends on US, THE AUTHORS, not only 
> on the Publisher.
> 
> I do not find such transparent statements from other publishers, and I 
> think that many authors feel intimidated by journals' copyright 
> policies. How many authors can afford purchasing the Open Access 
> option? Those who do, are they the best authors or best-financed 
> authors?  I see that many publications of scientific Societies and 
> Consortiums such as IEEE or, why search so far, our CMS, are also a 
> kind of "Sesame: show open" ;-)
> 
> To recapitulate this, I believe that a fundamental discussion on 
> public research and authors rights versus publisher's rights is due 
> rather than blasting one selected publisher.
> 
> Best regards,
> Tomasz
> 
> --
> Tomasz Kaczynski
> Departement de mathematiques
> Universite de Sherbrooke
> Sherbrooke, Qc, Canada
> 
> 
> Quoting Nassif Ghoussoub <nassif at math.ubc.ca>:
> 
> > Dear all,
> >
> > This is to inform you about a campaign to boycott Elsevier launched 
> > by Timothy Gowers on his blog
> >
> > http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-its-downfall/
> >
> > You can participate if you wish by going to the webpage "Cost of knowledge"
> >
> > http://thecostofknowledge.com/
> >
> >
> > Nassif Ghoussoub
> > http://nghoussoub.com/
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

Christiane Rousseau
Département de mathématiques et de statistique 
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-ville
Montréal, Qc, H3C 3J7
Tél: 514 343-7729, 
Télec: 514 343-5700
rousseac at dms.umontreal.ca
www.dms.umontreal.ca/~rousseac



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