--------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Access to academic journals (was Re: Remarks
on Wikimedia's fundraiser)
From: "Andreas Kolbe" <jayen466(a)yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, March 15, 2011 6:32 am
To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
<foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- On Tue, 15/3/11, David Goodman <dggenwp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> From: David Goodman <dggenwp(a)gmail.com>
> I've been involved with open
> access journals as a professional
> activity from the start of the movement, long before I
> joined
> Wikipedia. There has been only limited success.
> Though there are
> almost ten thousand open access journals, 95% of them are
> either very
> small or very unimportant, and in almost all fields
> of study, none or
> almost none of the important journals are open access:
This is my experience too; thanks for pointing it out.
> No important journals at all in chemistry are open access,
> Almost none in physics
> Almost none in geology
> Almost none in ecology & evolution
> A few in molecular & cell biology
> A few only in biomedical sciences
> None in psychology
> Almost none in the social sciences or the humanities
> Almost none in engineering and applied science
> A few in medicine
<snip>
> At this point, there is no academic field of study
> whatsoever where an
> adequate article could be written using only open access
> material.
> This is of course a very limiting thing for access to
> information not
> just for us, but for the world in general, and the WMF
> projects should
> certainly cooperate as closely as possible with the
> forces working
> for open access, but the suggestion that it is possible to
> limit to or
> even prefer open acces material is incompatible with the
> policy on
> using the best available sources.
Could someone from the Foundation please respond to the idea of contacting
universities and content database providers and inviting them to support
Wikipedia by making a certain number of log-in IDs available, with the
benefit -- to them -- that increased citation of high-quality publications
would potentially make these publications visible to a larger audience?
Is this something the Foundation would consider pursuing?
Andreas
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In connection with the Credo subscriptions Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation created the mailing list
Wikimediareference-l list run by erik at wikimedia.orghttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediareference-l
It has a little bit of discussion from March to July, 2010.
Let's all subscribe and bury this conversation away from public view so
we won't have to think about it any more.
I see they have a job description for a communications staff person to
coordinate discussions. This is a good example of what some way of
coordinating discussions is needed.
One thought though, there should be some mechanism for the donor to get
feedback on the use and usefulness of their donation by active and
successful Wikipedia editors if they are going to be satisfied that their
donation was useful and appreciated.
Fred
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 06:32, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Could someone from the Foundation please respond to the idea of
contacting
>> universities and content database providers and inviting them to support
>> Wikipedia by making a certain number of log-in IDs available, with the
benefit -- to them -- that increased citation of high-quality
>> publications
>> would potentially make these publications visible to a larger audience?
>>
>> Is this something the Foundation would consider pursuing?
>
> Credo offered 100 accounts last year as a charitable donation.
> Unfortunately they were given out on a first-come, first-served basis,
which meant editors who don't contribute content signed up for them, as
did those who already have access at home through their local libraries
-- though in fairness several withdrew their names once they realized
that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:CREDO
>
> It would be wonderful if the Foundation could seek more of the same
kind of donation, particularly from databases giving access to
> academic journals (e.g. JSTOR), but being careful to make sure the
accounts went to editors who would use them the most, but who don't
currently have access. This kind of thing would really improve article
quality, and would make established editors feel their needs were being
looked after.
>
> Sarah
>
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