Cannot resist the comedic irony I just think of.

"Tear down this pay wall, or otherwise I will buy a cheap access acount from Taobao!"

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:28 PM, Benj. Mako Hill <mako@mit.edu> wrote:
<quote who="Richard Jensen" date="Sun, May 20, 2012 at 11:30:13PM -0600">
> that's a bad idea--it will destroy the financial base of thousands
> of journals and throw the whole science community into turmoil for
> years as the main quality control system --peer review--is
> destroyed.

If the result of that turmoil is that tax-payers get access to the
research they funded and that the product of scientific knowledge is
increasing accessible without pay-walls and fees that create
roadblocks and exacerbate existing inequalities, I am willing to put
up with a little turmoil.

There are already thriving open access journals in many fields and
plenty of reasons to believe that peer review is not at risk. But even
if we had no idea *how* things would work out, let's not let a lack of
imagination keep us from standing up for something that is
right. Access to scientific knowledge is deeply important -- and a key
part of why Wikipedia exists today. Just as Wikipedia has does in the
area of reference works -- and lets not pretend Wikipedia growth has
been without turmoil -- let's *make* it possible.

Regards,
Mako


--
Benjamin Mako Hill
mako@mit.edu
http://mako.cc/

Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far
as society is free to use the results. --GNU Manifesto

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