Comments on: Pure Gold, Like in Fort Knox http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/ Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:22:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Alex http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181771 Alex Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:28:38 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181771 At Royal Holloway, we had offprints in the library for some subjects - now that's stingy. At Royal Holloway, we had offprints in the library for some subjects – now that’s stingy.

]]> By: Keith http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181760 Keith Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:58:36 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181760 For the last five years I have worked as an administrator for several scientists. When I started in '02 I would send about 5 offprints a month and now it's one or two a year. PDF has ruined the offprint industry. For the last five years I have worked as an administrator for several scientists. When I started in ‘02 I would send about 5 offprints a month and now it’s one or two a year. PDF has ruined the offprint industry.

]]> By: BillCross http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181736 BillCross Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:46:56 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181736 There was nothing quite like the feeling of receiving one of those postcards and knowing that someone gave a damn enough about your work to write to you. Email just doesn't quite have the same impact. There was nothing quite like the feeling of receiving one of those postcards and knowing that someone gave a damn enough about your work to write to you. Email just doesn’t quite have the same impact.

]]> By: DC http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181714 DC Sat, 09 Dec 2006 15:45:05 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181714 I have a few of those re-prints of my articles (and I think I refused to pay for them). I try to force them on other people at the slightest prompting. The one person who still appreciates this practice is my mother. She loves the published-looking articles. I'm guessing they are in the scrapbook next to my 4th grade report on Crazy Horse. I have a few of those re-prints of my articles (and I think I refused to pay for them). I try to force them on other people at the slightest prompting.

The one person who still appreciates this practice is my mother. She loves the published-looking articles. I’m guessing they are in the scrapbook next to my 4th grade report on Crazy Horse.

]]> By: Matt Weiner http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181708 Matt Weiner Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:39:03 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181708 <i>Online publication breaks up that racket, and that probably has something to do with the resistance to it.</i> But does it account for resistance among faculty? <i>We</i> aren't getting anything out of this racket. In my first job out of college I too worked for a journal publisher, in molecular biology (Cell Press), and they made money by selling offprints. I can't recall whether authors got n free offprints or whether they had to buy a certain amount, but I think at least one journal required authors to buy offprints (though I may be mixing this up with page charges). Anyone who publishes in molecular biology has some research budget to fund their lab and may be able to use some of that to buy offprints from the journal. In philosophy I don't think every journal even has the option to buy offprints, and I think it would be considered somewhat disreputable for a journal to make authors pay for offprints (or page charges). A philosophy author might be a grad student or VAP working alone in a hovel who couldn't afford such things. Online publication breaks up that racket, and that probably has something to do with the resistance to it.

But does it account for resistance among faculty? We aren’t getting anything out of this racket. In my first job out of college I too worked for a journal publisher, in molecular biology (Cell Press), and they made money by selling offprints. I can’t recall whether authors got n free offprints or whether they had to buy a certain amount, but I think at least one journal required authors to buy offprints (though I may be mixing this up with page charges). Anyone who publishes in molecular biology has some research budget to fund their lab and may be able to use some of that to buy offprints from the journal.

In philosophy I don’t think every journal even has the option to buy offprints, and I think it would be considered somewhat disreputable for a journal to make authors pay for offprints (or page charges). A philosophy author might be a grad student or VAP working alone in a hovel who couldn’t afford such things.

]]> By: J. Ellenberg http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181700 J. Ellenberg Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:21:06 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181700 In mathematics, we still get offprints of our papers, but they mostly pile up in our offices -- people who want an article not available online e-mail me, and I send them .pdf. They are handsome, though, and I'd be sort of sorry to see them go. In mathematics, we still get offprints of our papers, but they mostly pile up in our offices—people who want an article not available online e-mail me, and I send them .pdf.

They are handsome, though, and I’d be sort of sorry to see them go.

]]> By: Mark Schmitt http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181699 Mark Schmitt Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:13:48 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181699 This post and the previous should also note the centrality of offprints to the economics of academic journals. In my first job out of college, I worked for an academic publishing company that had a dozen or so journals; that business would never have been profitable without the income from selling offprints to the journals' authors. It struck me twenty years ago that this was a terrible racket -- we were making money by selling authors' work back to them to distribute on their own, and authors were paying for the credential of having their work published in a journal. Online publication breaks up that racket, and that probably has something to do with the resistance to it. This post and the previous should also note the centrality of offprints to the economics of academic journals. In my first job out of college, I worked for an academic publishing company that had a dozen or so journals; that business would never have been profitable without the income from selling offprints to the journals’ authors.
It struck me twenty years ago that this was a terrible racket—we were making money by selling authors’ work back to them to distribute on their own, and authors were paying for the credential of having their work published in a journal. Online publication breaks up that racket, and that probably has something to do with the resistance to it.

]]> By: R.J. O'Hara http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181695 R.J. O'Hara Sat, 09 Dec 2006 02:15:58 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181695 I remember one of the rites of passage for young graduate students was the creation of one's own postcard for requesting reprints (as we call them in my field). A researcher's reprint collection is/was a vital professional resource in disciplines with a broad literature like natural history. I remember one of the rites of passage for young graduate students was the creation of one’s own postcard for requesting reprints (as we call them in my field). A researcher’s reprint collection is/was a vital professional resource in disciplines with a broad literature like natural history.

]]> By: Matt Weiner http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181692 Matt Weiner Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:23:01 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181692 <i>Excellent Women</i> is a Pym novel whose main character is, approximately, critically considering her role as an unmarried woman devoted to making various male-dominated hierarchies run smoothly---making tea for vicarage jumble sales, making indexes for her male anthropologist friends, etc. Just so no-one thinks my use of "Excellent Woman" in that comment is too strange. Excellent Women is a Pym novel whose main character is, approximately, critically considering her role as an unmarried woman devoted to making various male-dominated hierarchies run smoothly—-making tea for vicarage jumble sales, making indexes for her male anthropologist friends, etc. Just so no-one thinks my use of “Excellent Woman” in that comment is too strange.

]]> By: Matt Weiner http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181691 Matt Weiner Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:17:57 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181691 I hope faithful readers of Barbara Pym know what offprints are! There's a wonderful passage in <i>Less Than Angles</i> in which Esther Clovis, Excellent Woman of the world of anthropology, sits surrounded by the offprints that have been sent her 'prompted by a sort of undefined fear, as a primitive tribesman might leave propitiatory gifts of food before a deity or ancestral shrine in the hope of receiving some benefit.' Quote from <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_scholarly_publishing/v037/37.2bell.html#FOOT46" rel="nofollow">this interesting-looking article</a>, available only to project MUSE subscribers alas. MQ, you're right, but it's not as easy for individuals as it sounds; putting pdfs up on our sites won't get us ahead in the profession, and not every journal lets you post their pdfs. I hope faithful readers of Barbara Pym know what offprints are! There’s a wonderful passage in Less Than Angles in which Esther Clovis, Excellent Woman of the world of anthropology, sits surrounded by the offprints that have been sent her ‘prompted by a sort of undefined fear, as a primitive tribesman might leave propitiatory gifts of food before a deity or ancestral shrine in the hope of receiving some benefit.’

Quote from this interesting-looking article, available only to project MUSE subscribers alas. MQ, you’re right, but it’s not as easy for individuals as it sounds; putting pdfs up on our sites won’t get us ahead in the profession, and not every journal lets you post their pdfs.

]]> By: MQ http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181690 MQ Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:43:44 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181690 For this reason, people should be posting up pdf files of their printed articles on their web sites. It's ridiculous we should be using a financial model like journals to distribute what should be free ideas. The whole point of academic is to disseminate ideas. For this reason, people should be posting up pdf files of their printed articles on their web sites. It’s ridiculous we should be using a financial model like journals to distribute what should be free ideas. The whole point of academic is to disseminate ideas.

]]> By: John Quiggin http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181688 John Quiggin Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:18:11 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181688 And I still keep a more or less complete set, to hand out to students and so on, if I happen to mention an article. And I still keep a more or less complete set, to hand out to students and so on, if I happen to mention an article.

]]> By: John Quiggin http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181686 John Quiggin Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:15:38 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181686 I still get the odd postcard from time to time, as my most-cited article appeared in a relatively obscure and expensive journal, not held by all libraries. I still get the odd postcard from time to time, as my most-cited article appeared in a relatively obscure and expensive journal, not held by all libraries.

]]> By: Matt Kuzma http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181684 Matt Kuzma Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:47:09 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181684 Wow, postcards and mail! How quaintly twentieth-century. Naturally the practice has been updated such that publishers provide a read-only electronic copy to the authors now and, by sending an email request with a .edu address and a link to your university staff page, you can have the author email you his electronic copy. Right? Wow, postcards and mail! How quaintly twentieth-century.

Naturally the practice has been updated such that publishers provide a read-only electronic copy to the authors now and, by sending an email request with a .edu address and a link to your university staff page, you can have the author email you his electronic copy. Right?

]]> By: X. Trapnel http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/comment-page-1/#comment-181680 X. Trapnel Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:11:54 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2006/12/08/pure-gold-like-in-fort-knox/#comment-181680 I find that last bit rather sad--wouldn't the image almost certainly be fair use? I imagine it's just risk-aversion on the part of the publisher. Sigh. I find that last bit rather sad—wouldn’t the image almost certainly be fair use? I imagine it’s just risk-aversion on the part of the publisher. Sigh.

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