Barriers (RE: Correction (RE: Thatcher vs. Harnad)

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> Barriers to authors are a good thing, not a bad thing.

It might be better to say that barriers can be either good or 
bad, depending on what they keep out.  Editorial review is a good 
barrier, because it tends to keep out bad stuff while letting in 
good stuff.  The problem with author charges (in either a 
toll-access or an OA environment) is that they don't discriminate 
-- they have the same inhibiting effect on publication of a 
brilliant and original article as they do on publication of a 
poor and derivative one.

I'm not sure the world needs less scientific publication.  Given 
the limits on time and energy that Joe quite rightly points out, 
I think we want better and more effective barriers of 
discrimination, and fewer barriers that tend to keep high-quality 
content out of the scholarly marketplace.

(And let me pre-empt Stevan's predictable response by pointing out that
subscription fees are a barrier to _access_ -- not a barrier to
publication.  Subscription fees, in fact, tend to facilitate
publication.)

---
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
rickand@unr.edu