Re: In the news (Georgia State)

The purpose of publishing research is to increase the
quality and 
quantity of knowledge available to the human species. The
idea 
that research is published as a form of advertising is not 
accurate.  It's quite clear that universities, through their

press offices et al, USE research to advertise the
university, 
attract students, attract donors, etc.  However, that's
quite 
different from the idea that advertising, in and of itself,
is a 
reason universities publish research. Quite frankly, if my
school 
wanted only advertising we could get better (and cheaper)
results 
by hiring an ad agency than investing $100 million plus
yearly 
into research.

Karl Bridges
University of Vermont

Quoting Sandy Thatcher <sgt3psu.edu>:

> Under this logic, it makes no rational economic sense
for any 
> university to support a press that publishes books and
journals 
> consisting 90% of writing done by faculty elsewhere
than its 
> own campus. But the system of scholarly communication
has 
> always been a cooperative enterprise--which brings us
back to 
> the actual subject header here about Georgia State,
which under 
> my interpretation is playing as a "free
rider" on the system 
> and not contributing its "fair" share.  If we
go in the 
> direction that Krichel seems to imply we should,
Georgia State 
> will get its just deserts by having no press to publish
works 
> by its own faculty. Of course, presses who are really
annoyed 
> by GSU's misbehavior can always opt not to publish any
works by 
> its faculty anyway. Tit-for-tat, so to speak.
>
>
>> Thomas Krichel writes:
>>
>> Research is published to advertize skills of the
academic staff
>> of an institution. Institutions are in the business
to maximise
>> attention to the research results that are produced
locally. When
>> the library of institution buys access to a
journal, over 90% of
>> the material in that journal will contain material
coming from
>> other institutions, then it subsidizes attention to
research
>> results from other instutions. You don't need a PhD
in economics
>> to see that this makes no economic sense. A
rational institution
>> will pay nothing for research produced elsewhere
and will spend
>> all its efforts to make its results widely
available.
>
> Sanford G. Thatcher, Director
> Penn State University Press