Hello every body,

It has been quite some time since I have contributed, and I hope this message finds you healthy and well. Here is a petition. The goal is to push some editorial boards to drop their lucrative private journal titles and launch free ones under diamond-copyleft models (as happened to JMLR w:Journal_of_Machine_Learning_Research and LingOA w:Glossa_(journal)).

https://journauxscientifiqueslibres.wesign.it/en

In the related video (yeah french too : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PrMrJqsVhw) I've been focusing on the 'french system' (episcience.org) as an Overlay Journal seemed the easiest first step for tenured researchers. Feel free to comment debate and produce around it so wikijournal may benefit from this call.

I've another in english incoming that I have to "re-film". It's the occasion. (The script is below)

As usual in my actions I've been drawing arrows toward wikimedia, you'll find under "about us" a wikipage to debate it, change-it etc. I'll also receive correction there (I hope). I invited to duplicate the study-page toward en.wikiversity but if you found adequate to forward here (on meta), I guess it would be adequate too if contribution is more active. Feel free to translate, distribute... and sign if you agree of course ;-)

BR

Rudy

PS: I started a translation in German. But this language is way out of my brain since I'm not using it anymore.

the short call was as such

"Wir brauchen eine Änderung der wissenschaftlichen Publikationspraxis. Sagen wir "raus" zum lukrativen Eigentum, das die Produktion und Verbreitung von Wissen parasitiert. Wissenschaftler Wissenschaftlerin bitte erstellen Sie Freie Wissenschaftliche Fachzeitschriften und tragen Sie zu diesen bei, nativ unter Open Access, APC-frei, Copylefted."

english script

Covid-19 kills, people are afraid and opportunities are opening up.
Petitions are flourishing to re-open access to scientific publications.
We are talking about it. We twitt - chat - sign…
But is that really all of what we can do?

This is the current situation (svg business scholar)
For those who do not know the scholar publishing business, this is simple representation of how it runs.

The researcher searches, finds, writes his methods and his results, then sends it for free (most the time) for peer-reviewing and publication in the journal of his choice.
Then "peers", meaning other researchers read it, correct it, reject or accept it. The selected “Papers” integrate the journal it is now in the scientific literature.
The publishers that own the titles then charge these same researchers for accessing what was produced by them. Actually it is the taxpayer who pays.

Apart from this lucrative loop stands archives where researchers can deposit their work freely.

You’ll find on the internet majors such as ArXiv or HAL and lots of institutional repositories too.

If you gave out your rights on the papers … well RomeoSherpa’s site explains you what to deposit and publishers policies regarding this action.

Of course some researchers in the 90ies thought about using archives as support for journals of their own. It is called Overlay Journal and is probably the easiest and cheapest way out of the lucrative loop.

Platforms even exist to do so.

The petition approach is basically asking those you send it for free to no longer charge for access to what has been given to them.
This is not the only petition currently, nor the first of the kind.

But is this the only way?

Extract "we can't go out"

Do the exercise. Ask a 6 years old child "On this drawing darling, where should we cut the loop so that you no longer have to pay two or three times? "

business svg


In universities, these issues are not always understood, explained, taught, minded, cared about.

Extract Thèse Gruson

But when you are in a good editorial position (members of multiple editorial committees, notable reviewers referees, decorated researchers, etc.) you may have better things to do, in my opinion, than petitions.
You can do better. You have to do better.
Others have already done so!
In linguistics,
LingOA
in mathematics,
JMLR

And without suffering from the problem of "impact factors"
Paid / Free
MLj / JMLR (boxed)

etc. there are others (FJN) “FGN”

I know that the situation could be described in a more complex ways.

Models may vary between platforms
Episcience.org from
french CCSD – a CNRS part
and the OpenEdition journals,
...

Journals are also used for scholarship grants programs. But is this not the charity of the powerfuls, funds collected on access to knowledge, funds uses that depends on the will of the editors and publishers?
What do "the Souths" say? Do they want charity or free access to research from their peers around the world? Where does the recognition of work in the diversity of languages stand?

Mr. Selosse wishes: “to send a strong signal to the big publishers”
So dear professors _ anyone in such a position _.

Sign out of your editorial board with your colleagues and launch your own title. You’ve seen it works.
Diamond journal model : online - free of charges (no subscription or APCs)- and in copyleft to do things right. OK

Wanna send a signal, send a big one. Drop the lucrative ones and go with your boards for a diamond model overlay journal.

Thanks for freeing our episteme.