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Re: Re: "Mathematica in Education and Research"

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg61020] Re: [mg60975] Re: "Mathematica in Education and Research"
• From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz at mimuw.edu.pl>
• Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 02:48:27 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <dht48m$hle$1@smc.vnet.net> <200510050628.CAA10410@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I agree that it would be unreasonable to expect a journal of this  
type to be distributed for free although the actual costs of a  
competenly published online journal ought to be quite low, given that  
most of the work is done by by unpaid labour: authors and referees.  
(At least I have never been paid in either role.) However, the main  
point the OP seems to be making is that it is obviously unreasonable  
to be expected to pay $45 dollars for a one year subscription if you  
are "slightly interested in one of the articles". The solution is  
obvious: individual articles should be available for download for a  
much lower price, which is actually the practice followed by many  
online journals.

Andrzej Kozlowski


On 5 Oct 2005, at 15:28, Mike wrote:

> On 4/10/05 3:34 PM, in article dht48m$hle$1 at smc.vnet.net, "AES"
> <siegman at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
>
>> Just received the first email list-serve mailing that I can remember
>> receiving from
>>
>>    Mathematica in Education and Research
>>
>>    "Volume 10 Issue number 4 is out now."
>>
>>    <http://www.ijournals.net>
>>
>> including the ToC and brief abstracts for that issue.  Don't know for
>> sure how I got on this list, but I suspect I probably subscribed  
>> after
>> seeing their List-Subscribe link:
>>
>>    <http://www.ijournals.net/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2>
>>
>> in some posting on this group.
>>
>> I'd like to ask for any info anyone may have about the publication  
>> and
>> distribution policies of this publication.  I was slightly  
>> interested in
>> one of the articles in that issue, but when I went to the web site to
>> get it, I discovered that to download a full article I'm apparently
>> supposed to subscribe, at $45/year.
>>
>> I happen to be involved in the publication activities of several  
>> major
>> professional societies that expend a great deal of resources in
>> publishing important peer-reviewed technical journals.  Many if  
>> not most
>> such journals these days are put on line _for free_ to the general
>> public, in full text format, after an "embargo period" in the  
>> range of 3
>> months to a year.  Some are published in this fashion from day  
>> one; and
>> the trend is more and more toward free distribution of such  
>> information.
>>
>> Does MiER have such an embargo period? Or, does it have an  
>> institutional
>> subscription rate?  I can only say that even with an adequate  
>> personal
>> income and a substantial interest in Mathematica, the chance of my
>> paying $45/year for a subscription to this particular publication is
>> essentially zero -- and the chance of my urging my university to pay
>> very much more than that for an institutional online subscription is
>> equally small.
>>
>>
>
> The previous publisher (Springer) of MiER ceased publishing the  
> journal at
> the end of 2000 because it was, in their view, unprofitable. I'm  
> not sure
> how a business is supposed to recoup costs let alone make a profit  
> if the
> goods or services they produce are free. You haven't given any  
> information
> about which professional societies provide free online articles but  
> as a
> chemist I know of none in my profession (eg. American chemical  
> society,
> royal society of chemistry ...) that do. Nothing in life is free so
> ultimately free online articles would have to be funded either by  
> society
> membership fees and other revenue raising society activities or by the
> generous donation of time and effort by many volunteers or both. We  
> do not
> have the luxury of either.
>
> The previous publisher had an embargo period of 4 years. Since this  
> is the
> first year that the journal has relaunched we have not yet  
> considered what
> would be an appropriate embargo period.
>
> Both private and institutional subscription rates were detailed on  
> the page
> in which you found the $45 rate.
>
> The mailing list exists solely to send notification of ToC each  
> quarter. You
> can unsubscribe from the mailing list by clicking on this link:
>
> http://www.ijournals.net/lists/?p=unsubscribe&id=2
>
> Regards
>
> Mike Honeychurch
> ---------------------------
>
> Michael Honeychurch
> Mathematica in Education and Research
> http://www.ijournals.net
> mierNOSPAM at ijournals.net
>
>
>

• References:
  • Re: "Mathematica in Education and Research"
    • From: Mike <m.HoneychurcNOSPAMh@uq.edu.au>