From: Paul Thind (cma$##$bluewin.ch)
Date: Thu May 25 2000 - 04:41:06 EDT
Dear Friends,
Henry Rezepa has raised the profile of a topic which has been of general
concern to educators, scientists and our community of chemist for sometime.
This phenomena of the global economy moving to a more capitalist model has
been going on for sometime in all aspects of economic life and information
(in particular scientific information - high value added content) is no
exception. As a community we can do something about it. But I disagree with
some of the suggestions put forward, in particular that perhaps individuals
should start selling their manuscripts (presumably to the highest bidder).
Most Scientists in the world are employees of companies or public
institutions. One can argue that they are already being compensated for
their output. This approach will not solve any problems facing the majority
of students and scientists from around the world and may create new
problems.
What needs to happen is quite the reverse. The Scientific community needs to
organize itself through not-for-profit organizations in order to publish
research results at cost or for free.
However our experience shows that at least our own community of organic
chemists is very poorly organized and not yet sufficiently motivated to take
advantage of some existing initiatives which can benefit everyone.
Almost a year ago we established the not-for-profit ARKAT Foundation. Its
sole aim is to publish a free online journal of organic chemistry which is
available to the global community. The project is being funded by an initial
donation of a substantial sum of money from Alan Katritzky & Linde
Katritzky. The funding level is sufficient for us to make this service
available for at least 3-5 years during which time we are confident in
generating other revenue streams to make it secure for ever. The details are
on www.arkat.org .
One might have assumed that authors would be knocking on our doors wishing
to publish and share their results, with the widest possible distribution,
and at no cost to themselves or the user. This has not been the case.
We are publishing. Two Issues of the Journal are now online. Third is on the
way. But we could be publishing ten to twenty times as many manuscripts as
we are presently receiving. Not even all Professors on our Board of Referees
have submitted a manuscript!
We can help authors in publishing their books. We can help the chemistry
community to have its own cost effective databases.
We could be publishing other educational material free or at no or very low
cost in accordance with the author's wishes.
I can only challege all of you. We have a solution to these problem. Anyone
who is concerned about the high cost of journals, books, databases is
encouraged to join us in this project. I would like to hear about reasons
for not publishing in Arkivoc!
Please forgive me if I seem to be pouring cold water on a very important
debate!
Best wishes,
Paul Thind
CEO ARKAT Foundation
Schanzeneggstrasse 1
8002 Zurich
Tel: 411 201 9700
----- Original Message -----
From: Eva Horn Moeller <ehorn$##$medchem.dfh.dk>
To: Multiple recipients of list orglist <orglist$##$dq.fct.unl.pt>
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 9:47 AM
Subject: ORGLIST: Information - Revolution?
Dear all,
this is indeed a very important and critical issue, and I am wholly
surprised that I havenīt thought of this or have heard a discussion of
this kind yet.
It is in fact absurd that the scientific habit of sharing information
globally is taken advantage of by the publishers. Many libraries cannot
lift the economic burden of keeping e.g. CAS, and many departments, as
some of you mention, end up choosing between very slow and difficult -
or very expensive access to chemical info. Now, the publishers can set
the price at any level they choose, and the libraries just have to pay.
Maybe we have been too naive. Especially because we, the researchers, in
theory have the power to shut off the commercial scientific publishing
at very short notice.
I really feel that something should be done about this, and the
discussion ought to be taken to a higher level. What are the opinions of
e.g. the Royal Chemical Society and the American Chemical Society on
this issue?
Best regards,
Eva Horn Moeller
(MSc, PhD)
The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy
__________________
ORGLIST - Organic Chemistry Mailing List
Website / Archive / FAQ: http://www.orglist.net/
List coordinator: Joao Aires de Sousa (jas$##$mail.fct.unl.pt)
__________________
ORGLIST - Organic Chemistry Mailing List
Website / Archive / FAQ: http://www.orglist.net/
List coordinator: Joao Aires de Sousa (jas$##$mail.fct.unl.pt)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Sep 19 2003 - 12:15:34 EDT