Re: [ox-en] Re: Next successful Free Product?
- From: "V. Sasi Kumar" <sasi.fsfs gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 16:44:35 +0530
On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 12:51 [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], Karel Kulhavy wrote:
On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 10:51:54AM [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], V. Sasi Kumar wrote:
What was described as Free Science in this list, I guess, is the Open
Access movement (see http://www.soros.org/openaccess). The idea is that
all publications should be archived at some site (centralised archive or
personal page) so that they are available to everyone. In the long term,
it works to ensure that all journals put up their articles on their
websites for free download. Open Access also aims at the material to be
made freely usable by authors without the need for asking permission
from the respective author/publisher (of course, with proper credits).
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm gives details about the
Open Access movement.
But this can be achieved simply by using GFDL or CC licence - why
duplicating effort with Open Access?
Traditionally, scientific publication is different because it goes
through a peer review process. A paper in a journal is reviewed by one
or more scientists working in the field and assessed for its rigour,
replicability, logic of its arguments, how it fits with present
knowledge in the subject and so on. The quality of a journal is a
reflection of the quality of papers published in it. The quality of a
paper is reflected in the number of citations it gets in later
publications. This is how scientists try to maintain some sort of
consistency and rigour in the building of knowledge. Journals play an
important role by arranging for the peer review process. Further, the
integrity of the publication should be maintained.
Since a number of journals are published by commercial enterprises, and
they (the journals) have established their credentials over a number of
years, the scientific community would like to have the assurance of
quality that these journals provide. So, scientific publication is an
area that cannot be easily dealt with.
Best
--
V. Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsfs gmail.com>
Free Software Foundation of India
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