From: Jacob Zabicky (Jacob.Zabicky$##$uab.es)
Date: Sun Jan 10 1904 - 10:50:23 EST
Dear friends,
The points of the scientists and educators have amply been made in the
present threadline. At a risk of being a dissonant voice, let me remind you
there are other aspects to consider, some of which were alredy touched,
however scantly.
1. Publishers are there to make a profit, Yes, we say, but profit should be
a "reasonable" one. Let's not forget that's not the way a free market
works. They'll keep on charging whatever they want unless somebody stops
them. The only one to stop them is the buyer by haggling, threatening and
actually cancelling subscriptions. The latter may really be frightening to
publishers, because the costs of production are much higher than those of
reproduction (i.e., printing).
2. Production costs of certain scientific publications are high, however,
today there are many ways of substantially reducing them, without affecting
the quality of the contents or presentation. None of these ways will be
mentioned, but publishers know them well. They are not implemented because
that requires certain changes of editorial policies, and there's no urge
because libraries buy the stuff anyway.
3. Certain publications are oriented towards industry, however, university
libraries can do good use of the information therein. You can subscribe
only at outrageus prices. In fact, industy pays only a fraction of that
price, as the subscription is tax deductable, possibly in more than one
way; no such deduction is applicable to universities as nonprofit
organizations. Unless industry revolts against such overpricing there's
little universities can do about it.
4. The "free" enterprises like the one mentioned by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin (see
below) do not always work so smoothly, possibly due to their limited
capacipty for handling everything on a restricted budget. For example, I
gave it up after addressing several times Dr. Shu-Kun Lin with quetions
relevant to the substances I wanted to send to the MolBank, and getting no
reply. You don't pay and there isn't realy anything to demand from a
good-will organization. On the other hand, if you pay there are potentially
some resources in case your expectations are not satisfied; that's the
stuff other specialists live of.
All he best,
Jacob Zabicky
>Very promising: at least there is one more journal which support the idea
>of MOLECULES (http://www.mdpi.org/molecules/) strongly. However,
>Dr. Paul Thind is correct. The online edition is free. MDPI sell CD-ROM
>and encourage authors to deposit samples and share samples.
>Is Dr. Paul Thind's other journal ARKIVOD's goal will be
>that of our MolBank at http://www.molbank.org/?
>
>Shu-Kun
>
>Dr. Shu-Kun Lin
>Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
>Saengergasse 25, CH-4054 Basel, Switzerland
>Tel. +41 79 322 3379, Fax +41 61 302 8918
>E-mail: lin$##$mdpi.org
>http://www.mdpi.org/lin/
>
*******************************************************************
Temporary address:
Prof. Jacob Zabicky Tel.: +34 93 581 1401
Group de Fisica dels Materials II Fax.: +34 93 581 2155
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Private Tel.: +34 93 581 7485
08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona)
Spain
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