RE: NYT on Cornyn-Lieberman

["Lisa Dittrich" <lrdittrich@aamc.org>]

If the research should be free to all, then simply make it 
available, sans review, editing, etc., to the public on some 
publicly available Web site.  THAT is the solution.

What we "publishing hacks"--or, correction, this particular 
hack--objects to is having to give away work to which I and my 
staff have SUBSTANTIVELY contributed.  In essence, it no longer 
belongs solely to the researcher or his/her funder, and no one, 
including the public, has paid any of the costs of what I and my 
staff have contributed.  I am not being greedy--our journal is 
not a profit maker.

I simply want our work to be appropriately compensated (not to 
mention simply ACKNOWLEDGED--this proposed legislation, and its 
many proponents, act as if publishers add no value at all, or at 
least nothing that cannot be recouped in six months time).  The 
journal's staff, a fine group of people who require reasonable 
salaries, health care, etc., work hard to ensure that mss. are 
properly tracked, reviewed, and substantively edited (which means 
ensuring that authors' mistakes, bad writing, etc., are 
corrected).  Our authors pay us no fees.  Our subscription prices 
are low.

You could argue that we should cut most of our staff and do none 
of these things.  Fine.  Then you are back to my plan of simply 
posting results on a Web site.  Authors can't have it both ways. 
Either you want what publishers offer--for which you must 
compensate us--or you don't.

I actually hope that an opposite push comes, and journals stop 
accepting mss. from government funded authors (a dream, I know). 
Let Varmus's original plan be put in place, and let's have a 
non-vetted Web site of research results, free to all.  This seems 
really to be the goal.  I personally have no problem with 
it--let's just be honest about our intentions and real about the 
consequences of whatever approach we choose!

Lisa Dittrich
Managing Editor
Academic Medicine
2450 N Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-828-0590
202-820-4798 (fax)
www.academicmedicine.org

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 7:58 PM
To: twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu; Lisa Dittrich;
liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: NYT on Cornyn-Lieberman

Colleagues,

I think articles funded all or in part by the Government should 
be available to all.  The 6-month "embargo" should protect the 
subscription numbers as few serious scholars or researchers will 
want to wait that long.  Further, the taxpayers are funding much 
of this research so why should we be denied access?  When the 
publishing industry hacks, also know as lobbyists, get a crack at 
the legislators it is quite likely that they will be able 
"influence" enough of them to defeat the bill anyway.  I applaud 
this non-partisan bill as a step in the right direction of "true" 
open access.

Tom Williams, Director