Posted on 03/24/2020 5:32:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Medical researchers in Asia, Europe and the United States are working around the clock on ways to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, hunting for clues and crunching data from decades of studies on pathogens similar to the new coronavirus.
The importance of that research was stressed on Friday when science authorities from 12 countries, including the US, Italy, and South Korea, released a statement urging corporate publishers of academic papers to make all relevant information openly and quickly available.
“[We] urge publishers to voluntarily agree to make their Covid-19 and coronavirus-related publications, and the available data supporting them, immediately accessible,” it said.
The statement not only signalled the urgent need for information as the epidemic kills thousands, but also flagged a behind-the-scenes conflict between academic publishers – such as Amsterdam-based Elsevier, and America’s Taylor & Francis Group – and scientists critical of publishing practices that lock leading research behind subscription paywalls.
While this isn’t a new argument, the Covid-19 pandemic is throwing a spotlight on how academic publishing works – an industry that some scientists say is based on a broken model and needs to be replaced.
Academic publishers have built highly profitable businesses by taking leading-edge scientific research, putting it to specialist review, and then selling it to companies, libraries and universities around the world.
It involved institutions like the University of California paying millions of dollars a year to get access to research that the author typically gives free to the publisher.
That element of the process has angered parts of academia for years, and the global coronavirus outbreak has reinvigorated the critics. Hundreds of scientists signed an online petition this month that prompted the publishers to unlock thousands of pages of coronavirus research from behind paywalls.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
One can only hope...
Open peer review is an interesting idea - but who gets to designate who is and is not a “peer”?
As for the current high cost of published research, it’s simple: buyers are almost always spending someone else’s money.
Academic publishers have built highly profitable businesses by taking leading-edge scientific research, putting it to specialist review, and then selling it to companies, libraries and universities around the world.
It involved institutions like the University of California paying millions of dollars a year to get access to research that the author typically gives free to the publisher.
That element of the process has angered parts of academia for years, and the global coronavirus outbreak has reinvigorated the critics. Hundreds of scientists signed an online petition this month that prompted the publishers to unlock thousands of pages of coronavirus research from behind paywalls.
When, we survive the downside to our current national crisis, we will begin to see incredible positive changes. We will watch the rigid old guard, who controlled and disseminated the knowledge become irrelevant.
Big changes will be coming to schools education from K to Phd level. How we shop and buy our food, clothing and other purchases. How we attend our churches. How we get our news after eliminating fake new pushers. ??????
“Peer Review” is the biggest joke on the planet.
I see that too. All the suffering and trauma but there will be a silver lining! Many models of doing things will be broken. ( I think just many families being “forced” to homeschool a few weeks may be eye opening and liberating to many!)
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I think just many families being “forced” to homeschool a few weeks may be eye opening and liberating to many!)
Homeschooling and shopping for basically everything on line.
Will be some of the first big changes.
We will be picking up our weekly groceries at Walmart tomorrow afternoon. We ordered on line.
Amazon will bring a couple of orders in the next few days.
My wife will be reading library books on line.
Our rxes will be arriving soon.
Some older friends receive a week of prepared dinners on Sunday.
A SIL, who handles the rental and purchases of office furniture, got a free in home office from her bosses instead of retiring. My wife told a friend, who was/is the office manager for 6 dentists about her SIL. The friend was going to retire to avoid an hour drive each way, and she will be getting an office in her home and keeping the same pay.
I have a niece and her husband working from their home as sales reps. Her mother, my sibling is now home schooling the two kids, in her home. The kids had been attending a private school home. They are using a live on line system.
While they are at it, maybe they can get rid of the corrupt high price fixing for college text books
Somebody post the crying baby meme.
These universities have billions in the bank.
Most of the research that these authors have published are funded by the US government or private corporations.
I have very little sympathy for these universities have to pay for access to research done by others.
And it seems a rather simple solution is for the universities to keep the data on their own servers and sell access to each other at more reasonable prices.
Not to mention a great many universities have their own publishing houses, so what are they complaining about.
ACADEMIC (ak-uh-DEM-ik): An individual educated beyond his intelligence who is unable or unwilling to create or provide anything of value to others, pontificating while hiding out in a college or university and expecting to be paid for it, usually from public funds.
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