This should not be my fight « Walt at Random

"This should not be my fight I’ve probably said this before, but thinking about yesterday’s post reminded me of it once again. That is: This should not be my fight. No, I haven’t gone to each site that wrote a story touting the Shen/Björk article to point out the problems with the data–especially now that it’s clear what the response will be. Somebody should. They have the actual data. But it shouldn’t be me. It’s really not my fight. I didn’t even start out to discredit Beall’s lists. I did cross swords with him on his absurd notion that the Big Deal had solved the serials crisis, but I did a real-world study of the journals and publishers on his lists to get a reality check. I was fully ready to believe that the picture was as bleak as he painted it–and if that’s how the data had come out, that’s how I would have published it. After all: I don’t publish any OA journals. I’m not on the editorial board of any OA journals. I don’t need publications for tenure (I’m retired and was never in a tenure-track position). I don’t make big bucks from speaking fees (haven’t done many appearances lately, and that’s OK). I sure as heck don’t make big bucks from the data gathering and analysis, although ALA Editions has published some of my work in the area (not big bucks, but some bucks and a venue I regard highly). For that matter, I’ve been the subject of ad hominem attacks from Stevan Harnad as well as Jeffrey Beall, so I’m not even well-liked among all OA folks. What I’ve been trying to do is see what’s actually happening and bring my 26 years of off-and-on experience with OA to bear in looking at what’s going on now and what’s being said. My mildly obsessive personality and retired status, and reasonably well organized techniques, have allowed me to do some large-scale studies that wouldn’t have been done otherwise. (With modest funding, I’d keep on doing them.) ..."