ajb Posted July 15, 2011 Posted July 15, 2011 In order to reach out to new readers, who may not enjoy access to high quality scientific and academic research, all 2009 and 2010 content on Cambridge Journals Online (CJO) will be made free to access between 15th July and 30th August 2011. Follow this link. 1
imatfaal Posted July 15, 2011 Posted July 15, 2011 Got two free articles from foreign law journals that my library doesn't subscribe to and I couldnt be bothered to go the long way round for. Thanks for posting
Hal. Posted July 15, 2011 Posted July 15, 2011 That's six weeks from start to finish , they are not accessible while maintenance is going on , Is the access/non access free so you can't complain ? 1
CaptainPanic Posted August 2, 2011 Posted August 2, 2011 It should always be for free. It's ridiculous that publishers get rich over the backs of the authors. It's a mafia practice, with a monopoly position for the large publishers and the position of a slave for the authors who get no money, and have to beg and hope... if you ask me. 1
imatfaal Posted August 2, 2011 Posted August 2, 2011 (edited) CUP is a part of Cambridge University - so if anyone is gonna be making money out of academic work perhaps it is correct that the universities should be the beneficiaries Edited August 2, 2011 by imatfaal
CaptainPanic Posted August 2, 2011 Posted August 2, 2011 How rich exactly do the publishers get? Just google for the annual report of Elsevier. See page 2 (look at the page numbers, don't just scroll to the 2nd slide). It's a .pdf btw. Reported figures Revenue: 7,084 million euro Adjusted operating profit: 1,819 million euro Adjusted profit before tax: 1,496 million euro I do not know in detail what all those profits mean, but I do know it's not just peanuts. That's a serious business, with equally serious money, earned because all the scientists in the world do not get money. 1
timo Posted August 2, 2011 Posted August 2, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the numbers, it's far from standard in this forum that people back up their statements with quantitative arguments. The profit indeed sounds more than I had expected. But to be fair you have to realize that the 7M Euro revenue seem to come with a 5M+ Euro operating cost (that's how I read the numbers - I'm not an economist). That motivates the following simplified assumption: if they were a non-profit organization then fees would be about 75% of what they are now. That still is ridiculously expensive, and far from free. EDIT: Incidently, I think I never read an article from Elsevier (I know the name, though). I checked with the publishers of my papers: most papers are free for download (IOP). Only one costs (AIP), but is of course also available on arXiv for free (and with better formatting ). Edited August 2, 2011 by timo
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