Via Kristina B (thanks!), Danah Boyd writes a great essay on open-access academic journals. I’m thinking it over…
Amended: With a little additional snooping, I caught the news that Harvard is having all ‘finished’ articles by Arts and Sciences faculty free and online. Here’s a clip:
The decision, which only affects the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, won’t necessarily disrupt exclusivity agreements with journals or upend the academic publishing industry, but it could send a signal that a standard bearer in higher education is seriously looking at alternative distribution models for its faculty’s scholarship. Already, various open-access movements are pressing for reforms (from modest to radical) to the current economic model, which depends on journals’ traditional gatekeeping function and their necessarily limited audiences but which has concerned many in the academic community worried about rising costs and the shift to digital media.
I’m mulling it over some more…
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