These days whenever I am in search of a research paper, invariably I end up with one which is mighty interesting but unfortunately not free. And I don't understand this tax on knowledge, levied on those in Humanity, who are the only ones carrying it forward. If there is some interesting article then why don't I have the right to read it for free. I want to ask the scientists the question that: Why do they do research? Why do they work and solve problems and answer questions? Is it not because students like me and other people know about it? Now, I know for a fact that many examples from this race don't care about protein folding, isn't that all the more reason why those who do (like me) should get access to that information?
I agree that publishing costs must be covered somehow. But if radio can cover cost of broadcasting by advertising and donation then why not research journals. Journals with really good research are read by a lot of people and that's how they get their high impact factor. This should be the reason why they should charge extra for advertising cause their ads are being read by so many more people. Publishing Science should not be a profit making industry, it must try and become a no-profit-no-loss-industry.
But I am not just raving and ranting about the cost, I also want to point out the outrageous amount of cost of some papers. For example what justifies the atrocious amount of $200 for a paper?? (A friend of mine saw this one)
Unfortunately the most interesting papers (often from Nature) are also the ones not free. I feel that papers, if they have to be charged, then must be charged for finite amount of time, say 6 months or so. This way all scientists who are doing literature survey will pay for it cause they must be updated with all the latest research, and a lot can happen over 6 months. After this period expires, the paper must come into public domain. This way a lot of good research will be accessible to a lot many people and students.
After all Science belongs to the whole of Mankind.
1 comment:
Very true!
i used to think that maybe some part of the money goes to the lab that worked on that paper. but NO! the publishing house alone gets it all! *wonders where all that money goes...*
i like ur suggestion of making papers free after certain period of time.
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