[Taxacom] FW: DEVELOPING WORLD TO RECEIVE ACCESS [etc]

[Doug Yanega]

Neal Evenhuis wrote here (and similarly in a private message to me, 
but at least this one response can be public):

>Many if not all of the smaller and local scientific societies rely on
>dues, of which a portion goes to the editing and production of the
>society's journal. Without that revenue, the journal not only dies,
>but the costs of running the society or keeping it alive diminish to
>the point where it will ultimately die. Without getting something for
>their dues, members will not renew their memberships, let alone want
>to actually go to a meeting. Without members, there is no society.

I think this is a little bit of exaggeration - how many of these 
societies' journals are composed EXCLUSIVELY of taxonomic revisionary 
work? This is obviously pertinent because that is the ONLY type of 
publication that I (at least) was referring to as belonging under a 
single digital umbrella.

I think the question I would ask is "What functions performed by a 
society would cease to be performed if, instead of a paper journal, 
that same society were to reduce its dues while some external agency 
sets up a free website they can use for their publications?". If the 
answer is "Nothing else would change", then that is the same answer 
that would apply under the scenario I propose. If the dues dropped 
from 100 dollars to 5 dollars a year, why would that drive away the 
members of the Society in question? If the ONLY function performed by 
a society is the passing around of manuscripts for review among its 
members, then I guess I do have to wonder why opening up that circle 
to the broader taxonomic community would have to be considered a "bad 
thing".

The one argument I've heard - though not this time around - that is 
difficult to counter (because it deals with some seriously entrenched 
"practices") is the "But no one counts a digital publication as a 
real publication in job and tenure reviews" argument. Given that 
there ARE scientific disciplines where electronic publication is 
thriving, there obviously must have been a shift in how THOSE 
disciplines review job applicants and tenure candidates. That, to me, 
is tangible evidence that this "only paper pubs count" dilemma cannot 
be an insurmountable thing.

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        /Dept. of Entomology         /Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0314
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82