[WikiEN-l] JSTOR and free external links

[David Goodman]

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%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
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 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Guettarda wrote:
> > On 9/11/07, John Lee <johnleemk at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 9/11/07, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at 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.
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> >
> >
> 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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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.