Re: OA in developing countries

From: Dana Roth <dzrlib_at_LIBRARY.CALTECH.EDU>
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:56:04 -0800

It's sad they didn't try to work together and set up something like BioOne (although I noticed that Springer is adding a few titles in 2008 that are currently in BioOne):

*Botanical Review
*Brittonia
*Cell Stress and Chaperones
*Economic Botany

Dana Roth


True, although some of them rely heavily on overseas subscriptions to exist
(to pay for "direct" costs such as printing, online hosting, etc. which some
institutions will not fund). The amounts of income from these may look small
to us, but may be indispensible to the journals. In some regions (e.g. some
of the African countries) there is a real fear of losing these subscriptions
when the material becomes available "free". In some of these cases the
journals are turning to European/American commercial publishers to retain
these lines of revenue - it is a shame that a different model cannot be
found to enable the journals to go OA (and improve their visibility and
impact) whilst retaining valuable income.

pippa


On 22/11/2007, Sally Morris (Morris Associates) <
sally_at_morris-assocs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> As I understand it, many scholarly journals from less developed countries
> are not financially viable through subscriptions and are, as a result,
> heavily subsidized by their institutions and thus - ultimately - by their
> governments. In these circumstances, a no-charge OA model makes a great
> deal of sense - many more bangs for exactly the same bucks!
>
> Sally
>
>
> Sally Morris
> Consultant, Morris Associates (Publishing Consultancy)
> South House, The Street
> Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK
> Tel: +44(0)1903 871286
> Fax: +44(0)8701 202806
> Email: sally_at_morris-assocs.demon.co.uk
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
> [mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG] On
> Behalf Of Guédon Jean-Claude
> Sent: 16 November 2007 09:07
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: RE : OA in developing countries
>
> I quite agree with Mike Smith and his concerns about the Third World.
>
> Open Access is the only way for Third World countries to see their
> journals
> recognized and integrated in the international bibliographies. As a
> result,
> Third World scientists will be able to publish on topics of interest to
> their situation (while responding to the universal criteria of
> excellence).
> The Web of Science is notoriously deficient on Third World coverage. The
> International Bibliography of the Social Sciences is quite as bad. Their
> coverage is 70% in English in disciplines where national and local
> languages
> are still extremely important). People close to the SciELO project in
> Latin
> America, Spain and Portugal have published on this topic and are beginning
> to take measure to counteract these biases. Recently, the people
> responsible
> for the Shanghai ranking of universities have decided to use Scopus rather
> than the Web of Science because the coverage of journals was wider in
> Scopus. I will not delve on the irony of the situation; neither will I
> analyze the validity of the Shanghai rankings, but I welcome the
> multiplication of evaluation and ranking services as they serve to dilute
> the judgmental monopoly of the (recent) past.
>
> Yes, Open Access will help Third World countries greatly, and not only in
> placing the articles of Third World scientists in suitable repositories.
>
> Jean-Claude Guédon
>
>
> -------- Message d'origine--------
> De: American Scientist Open Access Forum de la part de Michael Smith
> Date: jeu. 15/11/2007 10:22
> À: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Objet : OA in developing countries
>
> It is good to know that there is considerable interest and work on OA in
> developing countries, and this is not at all surprising. The intention
> of my brief post was NOT to say "nobody cares about or is doing anything
> about OA in developing countries" (and I certainly did not intend to
> insult anyone). Rather, my intention was to point out what seemed to be
> a bias in much of the talk and writing on OA: issues are typically
> framed solely in terms of the US and Europe. I follow the OA literature
> at a distance, and this bias seems pretty clear in things that I come
> across.
>
>
>
> Mike Smith
>
>
>
> Dr. Michael E. Smith
>
> Professor of Anthropology
>
> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>
> Arizona State University
>
> www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9
>
> http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/
>
> http://calixtlahuaca.blogspot.com/
>
>
>


-- 
Pippa Smart
Research Communication and Publishing Consultant
PSP Consulting - www.pspconsulting.org
3 Park Lane, Appleton, Oxon OX13 5JT,UK
Tel: +44 1865 864255
Mob: +44 7775 627688
Skype: pippasmart
pippa.smart_at_gmail.com
****
Received on Mon Dec 10 2007 - 21:39:16 GMT

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