Time for academics to withdraw free labour

Connotea Imports 2012-07-31

Summary:

"Jack is a sheep farmer. He gets some government subsidies, and also works long hours to keep his sheep happy and healthy. When his beasts are ready for slaughter, he offers them to an abattoir. The abattoir is very choosy and may reject Jack’s sheep, which is a disaster for him, as there is no other route to the market. If he is lucky the abattoir will accept the animals, slaughter them and sell them, at a large profit, to the supermarket. Jack does not see any of this money. The populace struggle to afford the price of meat, but the government has no control over this. When Jack feels like a nice piece of lamb, he buys it from the supermarket. Meanwhile, Jack provides his services for free as an inspector of other farmers’ animals. Crazy story, right? But that’s the model that academic publishing follows....But as from now, I shall include publisher in the criteria I adopt, and avoid Elsevier as far as I can. Also, if asked to review for a journal, I’ll check if it is in the Elsevier stable, using this handy website, and if so, I’ll explain why I’m not prepared to review. I suggest that if you are as annoyed as I am by this story, you do likewise, and refuse to engage with Elsevier journals...."

Link:

http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2012/01/time-for-academics-to-withdraw-free.html

Updated:

01/18/2012, 20:34

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » Connotea Imports

Tags:

ru.no oa.new oa.comment oa.usa oa.legislation oa.negative oa.rwa oa.nih oa.elsevier oa.copyright oa.pledges

Authors:

petersuber

Date tagged:

07/31/2012, 11:54

Date published:

01/11/2012, 10:13