For all the German readers, a couple of days old, but still interesting thoughts on Germany in regards to the Elsevier boycott:
Deutsche Wirtschaftswissenschaftler sympathisieren zwar mit Elsevier-Boykott und Open Access, hängen aber am etablierten Reputations- und Rankingsystem
There are also some nice graphics to illustrate the issue.
From The Independent:
A mild-mannered Cambridge University professor is leading huge numbers of top researchers in a damaging boycott of Reed Elsevier. Stephen Foley explains why
Here a highlight from two separate interviews with Tim Gowers and Tyler Neylon. The article provides some background info on how the boycott came to life.
Q: When did you become an advocate for a change in the journal publishing system, and for Open Access?
Neylon: I have two major interests: math research and software. With both, you are aware of how easy it is to disseminate information on the Internet. Throughout my career I have been painfully aware of the inefficiency of scholarly publishing. If you know what technology can do, you are always seeing better ways of doing things. When I left NYU, it got harder for me to access research. I either had to sneak into, or pay $500 per year for access to an academic library. You shouldn’t have to pay if researchers don’t want you to pay.
Q: Who is responding to the boycott?
Neylon: The vast majority are professors at good universities. The most are in math, about 20 percent.
Q: Why are most in math?Neylon: People in math are particularly done with Elsevier. There were many resignations from their editorial boards. Mathematicians hate drama. To get a mathematician to resign, something must be seriously wrong.
Here is a piece by Kevin Smith discussing what scholars can do to change copyright. Smith starts off by reviewing last weeks news on Elsevier and provides three paths that scholars might pursue regarding Elsevier.
It has been an extraordinary week for open access advocates, and it is only Wednesday! For those keeping score, here is a recap of events, along with some commentary.
Here is a Washington Times article on the Elsevier boycott. They label it a “white-coat revolution”.
Wired’s David Dobbs shares his view on the Elsevier Boycott.
Here is some satire on the whole Elsevier thing.
My (very small) part in this story started a little over a week ago, when I started a parody Twitter account called “@FakeElsevier“. Since then, I’ve been posting as much Elsevier-related satire as I can manage in my free time, 140 characters at a time. It’s been carthartic for me to inject a tiny bit of humor into an otherwise frustrating and seemingly impossible situation, and the account has gotten much more play on the internet than I was expecting. It seems that others in the academic community want to laugh about this too, even if the jokes all have the flavor of gallows humor.
Here is the CBC News’ coverage on the Elsevier boycott.