taylor & francis (electronic journals) change their licence agreement

[Pickman's model]

and librarians up in arms about it:

 

[strung out]

My head of service has signed this letter.

I can't say this is surprising - the big academic publishers will have been eyeing the 'free' access they give universities for years, trying to figure out how to monetise their archives. While researchers still see value in publishing through traditional methods though, I can't see the publishers changing their profiteering habits...

 

[ricbake]

Control a chunk of the market then put the price up....

Taylor & Francis buys open access publisher Dove Medical | The Bookseller

Knowledge is power - money is power - Without power your screwed - pay up....

 

[Combustible]

Seems a good time for another reminder about the existence of sci-hub for downloading paywalled papers.

Sci-Hub: removing barriers in the way of science

 

[equationgirl]

I'm not surprised they've done this, but I do think it's motivated by greed - after all neither the academics nor their institutions receive any remuneration from publishing journal papers. Books aren't even that lucrative unless the text is recommended for courses.

 

[NoXion]

I'm not surprised they've done this, but I do think it's motivated by greed - after all neither the academics nor their institutions receive any remuneration from publishing journal papers. Books aren't even that lucrative unless the text is recommended for courses.

And even then, the prices I've seen are fucking daylight robbery. Like £50-£100 for a single volume.

I think that any efforts made towards breaking down these kind of barriers to research are worthwhile. This shit is literally holding back scientific progress in the name of profit. Although I appreciate that not everyone in the academic community will be able to risk their careers in doing so.

 

[jusali]

This shit is literally holding back scientific progress in the name of profit.

People finally waking up to this yet? Capitalism has been stifling human development for at least the last 50years in my opinion.
The whole world would be using renewable energy by now if it wasn't for monetisation, profit and power.
Our current construct (i.e. neo liberal/capitalist ecomomics) is the single biggest threat to human survival and development this century.

 

[Pickman's model]

People finally waking up to this yet? Capitalism has been stifling human development for at least the last 50years in my opinion.
The whole world would be using renewable energy by now if it wasn't for monetisation, profit and power.
Our current construct (i.e. neo liberal/capitalist ecomomics) is the single biggest threat to human survival and development this century side of jesus' birth.

this century? more than that (c4u)

 

[strung out]

Taylor and Francis have backtracked:

https://librarianresources.taylorandfrancis.com/taylor-francis-group-responds-open-letter-sconul/#