[Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic tidbit

Thu Jan 14 17:24:11 CST 2016

Cut the ad hominem rhetoric Frank. I don't see evil everywhere. But I can do the maths and see that $20/page multiplied by many thousands/year of taxonomic papers of limited interest amounts to a significant amount of public money spent on making stuff available to read when hardly anyone wants to read it. It is also an incentive for some authors to pad out their papers to be as long winded as possible.

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 15/1/16, Frank T. Krell <Frank.Krell at dmns.org> wrote:

 Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic tidbit
 To: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>, "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>, "Peter Uetz" <peter at uetz.us>
 Received: Friday, 15 January, 2016, 11:51 AM

 Disseminating results is
 an essential part of the scientific endeavor. If public
 money is intended for research, this includes making the
 results known.

 You see evil
 problems everywhere, don't you, Stephen. Even in a
 $20/page open access charge.

 Frank

 Dr Frank T. Krell
 Curator of
 Entomology 
 Commissioner, International
 Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
 Chair,
 ICZN ZooBank Committee
 Department of Zoology

 Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
 2001 Colorado Boulevard 
 Denver, CO 80205-5798 USA 
 Frank.Krell at dmns.org

 Phone: (+1) (303) 370-8244 
 Fax: (+1) (303) 331-6492 
 http://www.dmns.org/science/museum-scientists/frank-krell
 lab page: http://www.dmns.org/krell-lab

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Taxacom [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu]
 On Behalf Of Stephen Thorpe
 Sent: Thursday,
 January 14, 2016 3:02 PM
 To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu;
 Peter Uetz <peter at uetz.us>
 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic
 tidbit

 Peter Uetz said:
 Just make your papers available to everybody, not just the
 few lucky ones

 Not sure if
 he was being sarcastic? I hope so. It amounts to "just
 make your papers available to everybody (whether they want
 to read it or not), not just the few who actually want to
 read it (and pay for it with public money intended for
 research!)"

 Stephen

 --------------------------------------------
 On Fri, 15/1/16, Peter Uetz <peter at uetz.us>
 wrote:

  Subject: Re:
 [Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic tidbit
  To:
 taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
  Received: Friday, 15 January, 2016, 7:20 AM

  Yes! —
 Zootaxa is probably the best deal you can get.
  I paid for an open access paper in Zootaxa out
 of my own  pocket, and this was a single author paper.

  For teams, some of which may
 have grant money available, it  is a no brainer.
  Just make your papers available to everybody,
 not just the  few lucky ones.
  Especially
 if you believe that nothing in biology makes  sense except
 in the light of taxonomy, sorry..., evolution
  :)

  > ------------------------------
  >
  > Message: 9
  > Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 13:58:22 +1300 
 > From: "Geoff Read" <gread at actrix.gen.nz> 
 > To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
 > Subject: [Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic tidbit  >
 Message-ID:
  >     <88e32d0d97f3055d3f25280814fd767f.squirrel at my.actrix.co.nz>
  > Content-Type:
 text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1  >  > Am I
 unreasonable in expecting minor contributions to  Zootaxa
 to be  > affordable for authors as open access as a
 convenience  for their readers? 
  > For
 instance that's USD 20 for each author in today's 
 worst 2 page case!
  > Hopefully they earn
 (or did) much more that per hour.
  >
  > http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4066.2.5
  >
  > Happens quite
 frequently - what are these contributors  thinking? Should
 we  > perhaps start a fund to help them out?
  >
  > --

 > Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D.
  >
 Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
  > gread at actrix.gen.nz
  >
  > 

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Peter Uetz, PhD
  Associate
 Professor
  Center for the Study of
 Biological Complexity  Virginia Commonwealth University
  1015 Floyd Ave
  PO Box
 842030
  Richmond, VA 23284

  Ph: 804-827-4573

  http://csbc.vcu.edu/people/
  http://www.vcu.edu/csbc/uetz/uetz2.html

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 Celebrating 29 years of
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