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Thursday, April 10, 2008
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PAYMENT FREE INFORMATION
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 P. K.SUDHI
LIBRARIAN
GOVT. COLLEGE OF TEACHER
EDUCATION, THYCAUD
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-14
Scientific communication has sprouted from personal letters. Before the origin of magazines and periodicals scientists used personal letters for discussing and spreading details of inventions they had made. This is very helpful to flourish research because the existing knowledge accelerates, enhances and directs scientific experiments and efforts for new inventions and discoveries.
In the year 1665 the first journal “Journal des Scavans” started the publication in France by Denis de Sallo. Celebrated births and silent deaths are common in print world, but one interesting thing is that the second journal Philosophical Transactions (1665) by The Royal Society (England) is still continuing its publication. Since then the role of spreading knowledge in higher education and research has been taken over by journals. Materials published in international journals are consulted throughout the world for education, research and technological developments. At present about 205 million articles are published in 24000 journals every year.
The editorial experts of the journals peer review the articles received. They insist on correction if necessary before printing. These processes add validity and reliability to the theme of the article. Publication in one of these highly ranked journals is an honor to the scientist. These kinds of learned publications are inevitable in the arena of active research and learning, because they carry the nascent information. Thus journals have been playing an important role in scientific communication for the last three centuries.
Libraries and information centers use their major portion of budget for purchasing journals and periodicals since they vehement new information. And information becomes the prime commodity in this knowledge society. The amount knowledge utilization is the indication of development of a nation.
As almost all scholarly publications are coming from developed countries and we have to depend on them for our research, we have to spend a huge amount of foreign exchange for the purchase of journals. (The average subscription rate of one science journal is $ 1400.00 and that of a medical journal is $ 5000.00). This high subscription rate of journals form a barrier in the information transfer process and widens the gap between information rich and information poor countries.
At the beginning the journals and periodicals were established and owned by learned societies and institutions whose only concern was the development of research activities. Dissemination of information and knowledge, promotion of research activities for the uplift of mankind were their chief mottos. Later all these publications were taken over by private publishers and they use it for profit making. Now few giant publishers are the owners of almost all leading journals of the world.
Another interesting fact is that the publishers charge the cost of publication from these scientists who authored them. (This amount may reach up to $ 2000.00). Think about the condition of an Indian scientist who devotes his/her energy and time for the discovery, desires to publish his work in an international journal. These commercial publishers neither pay the remuneration for the article nor even grant the copy writ permission. All these indicate that our present states of scientific communications are beneficial only to the publishers.
On the arrival of IT the publishers of periodicals use the help of information communication technology for more benefits. The Internet facility has brought so many drastic changes in the communication scenario. E- publishing is one among them. The World Wide Web acts as a medium of information transfer like newspapers, magazines and periodicals. This digital media is enriched with more advantages than the conventional print media. Along with hard copies (publication in print form) these commercial publishers start digital versions of journals. This also is available only with payment. All these point out that the scholarly communication is under the control of a few publishers. The scientific communication through commercial publishers are not serving the real purpose, and not adequate in the digital age, not only due to the cost factor but also due to the developments in the information communication technology advancements.
The scientists have now realized the depth of exploitation from the publication industry. They have also started to use the magic potentials of the electronic publishing. The authors directly pour their intellectual contributions into the net. They need not wait for the mercy of the publisher for the publication. As soon as the publication is completed, the information is available to the whole world wherever there is the Internet browsing facility. This information is free to all the net users. The writers and readers are freed from the greedy hands of the publishers. The authors need not pay the cost for publication and need not wait to see the article being published. (Some publications require almost one year for this process).
All these leads to a new concept called the Open Access, which means the free availability of publications in Internet, permitting any body to use, download, print, and distribute. This permits us to use the information for other processes without any payment. Here the users of information are more benefited. Open access becomes a revolutionary concept in the socialization of knowledge. It eliminates the barriers of cost in spreading knowledge. This helps the information poor countries much in the development process.
The concept of “publish or perish” concept is changed into “ publish and self-archive”(Open access). In the light of this new idea the authors start to publish the peer-reviewed matter using the web medium, which leads to a new concept called open access publication. They use open access electronic journals to express. (All the digital periodicals of The Indian Academy of Science are open access publications, means any user can use the subject matter without any payment to the publisher). According to the Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ (http://www.doaj.org/) 2686 digital journals are freely accessible. DOAJ also includes 133266 articles (on 18.5.2007). J-Gate is another Indian initiative in this respect.
To support this concept certain institutions started creating Institutional repositories (Institutional Archives) in the internet with the publications of the scientists who are serving the institution. (Institutional archives created by many institutions like the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and University of Mysore). This leads to a movement in the scholarly communication called the Open Access Initiative (OPI).
Some publishers also realized the importance of this concept, and the shift in learning and writing. As a result publishers of some digital publications allow free accessibility to certain portions. The well-known science journal Nature offers this facility. Some other publishers permit open access after a period of publication. This concept is known as delayed open access.
Acceptance self-archiving, open access digital journals and open archives initiative indicate the changes in the scholarly communication. All these lead to a payment free information society, which is very essential for the uniform development of the whole world. |
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posted by paatasaala
8:51 AM
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