POLITICS Journal Advertising/Integrity of Science

[Guest guest]

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> In a way it doesn't matter what their *expenses* are, their

> goal is to turn a profit. Or are some of the journals not-for-

profit?

> One of my favorite magazines got cancelled because it wasn't

> turning a big enough profit for the parent company.

>

> There are some folks that are trying to get more web-based

publishing,

> with all the articles free for anyone who wants to read them (those

> journals are EXPENSIVE, even if the writers are unpaid).

>

> -- Heidi

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That's funny! It never even occurred to me that scientific journals

would be used to make a buck! I guess I don't have much insider

experience with them, and certainly not in the med/bio fields!

Thanks for pointing this out!

But of course that's a disgusting way to earn money, and I was

speculating about an ideal for scientific journals, so that's

definitely beyond the pale in my ideal scenario. I think that any

worthwhile discourse is either a labor of love or an obligation for

those who generate content, whether the content generation is done

for love or money. If we had more writers/publications, each only

dealing with the topics they really care about on a non-profit basis,

instead of people who get paid to be " writers " and wind up polluting

the world with anti-knowledge too often, then there would be a

dramatic improvement in the quality and accessibility of information

for everyone. When ordinary people from around world and various

walks of life share information with varying degrees of effort and

sophistication on internet forums like this or no-budget print

publications, you get a much richer knowledge base than a tiny

segment of the population trying to create a facade of expertise and

authority in order to make a living. Information in all its

possible forms should be a natural by-product of ordinary living.

Now I'm pulling my thoughts together more clearly on the science

case: People shouldn't make money off information unless they

actually create the content themselves. The journal publishing

houses don't create content; they only exploit it.

Probably a million holes in these sweeping prescriptions... Maybe

there are problems with the generalizations, but I think the specific

case of scientific journals is a solid argument...

Mike

SE Pennsylvania