The JSTOR links are convenience links. The actual reference should always be to the actual journal article in the published journal, and this can be used by any school or public library as information for interlibrary loan. The online link to an non-profit but paid service serves two purposes: first, it is not correct that nothing is visible; the abstracts or first paragraphs are generally available free (see for example http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-049X%281926%2965%3A2%3C105%3ATPGSWT%3E... from the article on the american Civil War.) Second, they at least work for those whose libraries have access (the exact titles that a library has access to depends upon what they pay, but many public as well as almost all academic libraries have at least a portion of the titles).
This is similar to other commercial online services. What is wrong and should be changed are links giving only information about availability of JSTOR, project MUSE, Proquest, Ebsco, Lexis, FindArticles, etc. None of these are references, they are just suppliers. What is also wrong is linking the word "JSTOR" in the external reference link to the WP article--this is excessive emphasis. There are a few thousand of these, and they all should be deleted. I'll be glad to discuss details if someone wants to write a bot.
There is also information of Wikipedia on how to obtain free copies of articles from legal sources, including those WPedians with legitimate access--I do not give a link because the pages are under discussion for a merge.
On 9/12/07, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
Guettarda wrote:
On 9/11/07, John Lee johnleemk@gmail.com wrote:
On 9/11/07, daniwo59@aol.com daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
Looking through dozens of articles, I find that many link to journals
that
are hosted on JSTOR. JSTOR is a fine repository of information, but it
is
not free. People researching from home do not have access to the articles
that
are cited, and are expected to pay to see them, unless they go to a participating library, usually a university library. Very few other people have access to their collection.
The fact is that these are journal articles that can be found in most
good
libraries in their paper format. They are then free and available to everyone. In fact, JSTOR is simply a pay-to-view library. Consider too that the actual source is the journal cited, not JSTOR per se.
As such, I would encourage peopl to link directly to the magazine that contained the article, not the JSTOR collection which will charge to
read
it. We speak of free content and free images. I want to suggest that we expand the focus to free external links as well.
Well, minor nitpick: we're free as in speech, not free as in beer. :p
Anyhow, if this only applies to magazines/journals where a free equivalent is available, I'm all for it. Otherwise, I think it's ridiculous - if no free equivalent is available, we should use the best sources we've got, regardless of whether we have to pay to access them. I've seen articles citing subscription-only web sources have their references removed because some editors were of the view that only sources you can freely view online can be cited. (In such a case, I guess we should stop citing meatspace newspapers we have to pay for.)
Johnleemk
John is right. The reason for having references is so that people can use them, either to verify information in the article, or to learn more about the topic. Stripping a link out just because it's a pay link means that people who do have access to JSTOR or online journals can't get access to them.
It isn't an either-or situation. If there's a choice between linking to a version on JSTOR and a version that's freely available, then definitely, go with the free version (although, of course, "free" versions might be things that people have uploaded without permission, which means they are likely to disappear). But if the choice is between JSTOR and no link, then it's better to provide a link available to SOME people, rather than no link at all. Of course, it may be preferable to link to a freely available abstract, rather than JSTOR (which, sadly, does not allow ANY access to people who are not subscribed).
It isn't true, by the way, to say that JSTOR access is available only from libraries. In my experience, it's available to any computer with a campus IP, and often to people associated with the universities who are not physically on campus (for example, if I log in to the library's web page I can access JSTOR articles from wherever I am).
That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a change in {{Cite journal}} to allow a separate link to the abstract (if, for example, a free abstract is available is one place, and a non-free full-text version is available elsewhere.
Saying that we should only link to free content is taking the idea of free content too far. Wikipedia's use of free content is utilitarian, not ideological. Ideological attraction to free content is great, but that has nothing to do with our mission to write an encyclopaedia. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Our "free" is libre, not gratis (though of course Wikipedia itself is also available free of charge). That does not mean, however, that all the content we link to or reference must be either gratis or libre.
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