Martin Coward responds on the open access question

Martin Coward has a thoughtful post HERE, pointing to some of the upside of the traditional publishing model.

Actually, I agree with his points. I’m an open access advocate, but not an open access Jacobin. There is still an important role for publishers of the traditional sort, and you may have noticed that I co-edit one open access book series (OHP) and edit a university press series (Edinburgh). This reflects my mixed-ecosystem view. There are upsides to both, and different books work better under the two differing sets of conditions.

That said, I’m perfectly happy to be a Jacobin when I’m talking about Springer journal articles and their outrageous contractual conditions, and the $35 fees for articles which make me want to spit on the asphalt in disgust. To ask that amount simply insults our intelligence. I understand that there may be sound reasons of capitalistic calculation why, in order to protect their subscriber base, they need to overcharge for piecemeal articles. But that being the case, then we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Bottom line: there are an increasing number of independent scholars out there who, unlike many of us, do not have university positions and university library staffs able to get us copies of just about any article on interlibrary loan. The idea that they should pay a $35 fee to read one of my articles is ridiculous.

And why did I ever agree to publish in a journal that has such conditions? Simple: I was working within a tenure/promotion system where those sorts of journals have more credibility with faculty and administrative committees who were judging my work.

But now, for me… who cares what they think? The academic freedom that comes with tenure (and now full professorship) is not supposed to be merely hypothetical. Nor does it only mean that I can criticize capitalism if I want. It also means that I can publish wherever I want, based on speed of publication, and based on audience characteristsics, rather than on what might impress a group of older university colleagues because of the conditions operative in their own day rather than in mine.