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<!--Xholon Workbook http://www.primordion.com/Xholon/wb/ (C) Ken Webb Sat Apr 21 2012 10:26:44 GMT-0400 (EDT)-->
<XholonWorkbook>
<Notes><![CDATA[
Xholon
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Title: Open sesame - Academic publishing
Description:
Url: http://www.economist.com/node/21552574
InternalName:
YoutubeId:
Keywords:
My Notes
--------
How to run the "Licence to print money" app (no charge) ::
Click the Run button above.
Click the Step button in the overlay.
The Economist advocates the free availability of research results that are paid for by taxpayers and charities. I fully agree with the short leader in the April 14 2012 print and online edition. Most Xholon Workbooks about new research rely on a review written by a science correspondent from a funded news organization. The original articles are often inaccessible to me, because I can't justify paying $15 to $35 per article. I'm quite certain that no one who goes through one of my workbooks would want to pay to read the original article, and I don't want to include a lot of details that almost no one else has access to.
The same journals that charge so much for an article, not only receive most of their content for free, but also benefit from unpaid peer-review. University libraries spend a lot of money buying back printed or electronic copies of research results they have already funded. The general public effectively has no ready access, but does get to foot the bill through taxes and charity donations. The largest academic-journal publisher, Elsevier, made a profit of $1.2 billion last year, on revenue of $3.28 billion, a 37% margin. The Economist calls is a "licence to print money". I agree that science is too important in the modern world to lock it away.
This workbook develops a simple model to explore this lucrative approach to making money - get your raw materials for free, and charge the same people top dollar to get it back.
Science Daily provides free summaries of "today's top science news". For each summary, they provide a link to the original published article. Visit their site and try some of the links. Some of the articles are free, while others are not. ::
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
See the following for a growing list of academics who are boycotting Elsevier, the largest journal publisher ::
http://thecostofknowledge.com/
On an encouraging note, many academic journals do provide open free access to the papers that they publish. Publishers and journals include ::
BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/
those listed at: http://www.doaj.org/
others
For more information ::
google for: academic journal free access
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_journal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_(publishing)
]]></Notes>
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<_-.XholonClass>
<!-- types of domain objects -->
<LicenceToPrintMoneySystem/>
<AcademicJournal/>
<ResearchResults/>
<Person/> <!-- taxpayer and general public -->
<Role/>
<Charity/>
<University/>
<Research/>
<Library/>
<PeerReview/>
</_-.XholonClass>
<xholonClassDetails>
</xholonClassDetails>
<LicenceToPrintMoneySystem>
<Person roleName="Joe"><Role roleName="Taxpayer"/><Role roleName="Interested in science"/></Person>
<Person roleName="Vanessa"><Role roleName="Taxpayer"/></Person>
<Charity/>
<University>
<!-- there are many people at a university doing research, peer-review, etc -->
<Person roleName="Sally"><Role roleName="Researcher"/></Person>
<Person roleName="Mike"><Role roleName="Librarian"/></Person>
<Person roleName="Jill"><Role roleName="Peer Reviewer"/></Person>
</University>
<AcademicJournal>
<Person roleName="Phil"><Role roleName="Publisher"/></Person>
<ResearchResults/>
</AcademicJournal>
</LicenceToPrintMoneySystem>
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$("textarea#btstrp_console").css("font-size", "12px");
$("textarea#btstrp_console").attr("rows", "7");
$("textarea#btstrp_console").attr("cols", "60");
var myName = this.parent().parent().attr("rolename");
var myRole = this.parent().attr("rolename");
if (myRole == "Taxpayer") {
print("\n" + myName + " supports university research with tax dollars.");
}
else if (myRole == "Interested in science") {
print("\n" + myName + " likes science but can't justify paying to read research results.");
}
else if (myRole == "Researcher") {
print("\n" + myName + "'s research papers are provided for free to academic journals.");
}
else if (myRole == "Librarian") {
print("\n" + myName + "'s university library buys expensive academic journals.");
}
else if (myRole == "Peer Reviewer") {
print("\n" + myName + " volunteers time to peer review articles for academic journals.");
}
else if (myRole == "Publisher") {
print("\n" + myName + " publishes an academic journal.");
}
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