[WikiEN-l] JSTOR and free external links

[Fastfission]

On 9/12/07, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/09/2007, K P <kpbotany at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I don't understand why we're promoting JSTOR, rather than linking to
> > the journal directly?
>
> JSTOR's main value (as far as I'm aware; I've never had to use it) is
> for its vast archives of older material, not for contemporary
> scientific literature; "linking to the journal" is pretty futile for,
> say, 1930s economics. It's not quite the same situation as, say, the
> Springer databases.

Additionally, it is often the case that an institution will have a
subscription to JSTOR but not necessarily the case that they will be
subscribing to the individual journal separately.

Also, while JSTOR does cost for subscription, it is not quite a
for-profit as it has been made out here -- it is not-for-profit.

That being said, I don't see any reason to link to it or to not. Those
with JSTOR access know that they can use it to search for articles.
Those without it probably don't care. The way my university's
authentication system is set up -- and I don't know if this is
atypical or not -- clicking links doesn't get you into the system
anyway; you have to go in via a different link provided by the
university.

In any case, obviously we can't provide "free references" for
anything, but as has been noted, we can always cite fully, and if
people have doubts those with JSTOR access can easily verify.

FF