Just over a week ago, I posted “Open access: Giving up on a theme.”
At the time, I said I’d pay attention to comments received at least until the weekend–that is, through August 30, 2009. I was considering writing the “final OA dump” this week.
Minimal response
I received one comment on the post, from a school librarian who appreciates the OA essays. I also received a couple of comments elsewhere.
What I did not receive: Any feedback at all from what I think of as “the OA community” (with one notable exception) or from scientists.
In a way, that’s consistent: I’ve noticed over the years that, except for Peter Suber and Charles W. Bailey, Jr., (and, sometimes, Dorothea Salo) people who blog or write articles about OA have almost unanimously ignored the writing I’ve done on the topic in Cites & Insights. That’s their privilege and perhaps appropriate, but does give me a sense of futility about continued efforts in this area. (If I’m not adding value and if “the community” doesn’t care, why bother?)
Leaving it open a little longer
On the other hand, I already have all the essays I’m planning to use in the next Cites & Insights (which, as an educated guess, is likely to emerge right around September 14).
If I do kiss off OA as a C&I topic, I won’t do the formalities until that issue is published.
So I’ll continue to pay attention to feedback, through September 14, 2009. Maybe I’m missing something…
The vast majority of academic scientists at universities in the US, Europe, and Japan don’t give a flying fuck about open access for the simple reason that they have university-paid subscriptions to all the journals they want to read.
Sorry, I didn’t happen to see the post. I’ll go look now.
Hi, as an editor of a US medical journal who is trying his level best to get it made open access, and as a follower of your blog, I’d really appreciate it if you kept up coverage on the topic. I’m trying to figure out where scholarship is headed and OA is among the places I think it’s going to go. Thanks!
jonny: Thanks for the note–but if I continue OA coverage (in my own odd, independent manner), it will be in Cites & Insights, not on this blog. Although, as usual, there’s always a blog post when an issue comes out, noting the essays in the issue.
Physio: I’m reluctantly leaving your comment as is…language included, because I suspect it accurately reflects the feeling of many scientists. And if–no, when–“the university” (the library) can’t afford all those subscriptions, which increase in cost much faster than CPI?