The opposite of Open Access

Alun Uncategorized 9 Comments , , ,

Here’s an inter­est­ing paper I found while look­ing for inform­a­tion on a topic: EVALUATING THE STATUS OF UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN EGYPT. I’ve no idea if the con­tent is inter­est­ing. How­ever, the reason I don’t know that (and prob­ably never will) is what makes the paper so interesting.

It’s avail­able at -http://dx.doi.org/10.5848/APBJ.2012.00005– http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/apbj/ijmc/2012/00000014/00000001/art00005 . Actu­ally I prob­ably should have said it’s ‘avail­able’ with air quotes instead. The reason is obvi­ous when you try to down­load it. Like 90% of journ­als you can’t because you need a sub­scrip­tion, but usu­ally there’s an option to buy the paper at some high rate. Not here. You have to sub­scribe to the journal to get the paper.

To be clear to read this paper on UNESCO World Her­it­age Sites in Egypt, because I have an interest in archae­olo­gical her­it­age, I have to sub­scribe to a journal that pub­lishes in the same issue:
EARNINGS MANAGEMENT AND TRADE-OFF BETWEEN TAX SAVINGS AND REGULATORY SCRUTINY THE CASE OF SLOVENIAN PROPERTY INSURERS
-http://dx.doi.org/10.5848/APBJ.2012.00012–
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/apbj/ijmc/2012/00000014/00000001/art00012
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND CAPITAL DETERMINANTS OF COMPULSIVE BUYERS’ BEHAVIOUR: THE CASE OF RETAIL CLOTHING MARKET IN LITHUANIA 
-http://dx.doi.org/10.5848/APBJ.2012.00034–
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/apbj/ijmc/2012/00000014/00000001/art00034
EXPERIENTIAL CONSUMPTION OF TIME: A CASE STUDY OF CONSUMING FREE TIME IN THE CONTEXT OF ENTHUSIASM FOR HORSES -http://dx.doi.org/10.5848/APBJ.2012.00037– 
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/apbj/ijmc/2012/00000014/00000001/art00037

I’m will­ing to believe these are all excel­lent papers in their field and well worth £150 as a bundle to the right per­son — but not to me. Pub­lish­ing this way really does lock away research to a nar­row audi­ence. The bar­ri­ers to get­ting the paper mean I won’t be includ­ing it in any research databases.

The punch­line? Check the name of the publisher.

#blog   #archae­ology   #her­it­age   

Edited due to a com­ment by +Rheza Rozendaal : I really should have checked the DOIs

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9 Comments

  1. Richard Smith

    “in the con­text of enthu­si­asm for horses” might be the best sur­real clause I’ve ever heard… I’m going to add it to as many sen­tences as pos­sible. That access situ­ation is com­pletely futile — why would any­one choose to pub­lish that way? I won­der if authors were aware how lim­ited their audi­ence would be when they sub­mit­ted. It seems like the art­icles are niche but might be neces­sary for policy work, allow­ing the pub­lisher to force sub­scrip­tion in the con­text of enthu­si­asm for horses.

    Reply

  2. Alun Salt

    It looks like the pro­ceed­ings of a con­fer­ence, so it’s prob­ably not quite as daft as it first appears. You do usu­ally buy con­fer­ence pro­ceed­ings by the volume. At the same time the site does claim to be a journal too. I wouldn’t have blogged it, were it not for the pub­lisher name.

    In the whole Open Access vs. Sub­scrip­tion debate there’s a lot of grump­i­ness when people don’t acknow­ledge the vari­ety of OA mod­els. I think this is a handy reminder that not all sub­scrip­tion mod­els are the same either.

    Reply

  3. Rhesa Rozendaal

    None of the DOI links appear to be defined. That’s a pity, because I would love to read that “free time” art­icle (in the con­text of enthu­si­asm for horses, of course) ;^)

    Reply

  4. Richard Smith

    +Rhesa Rozendaal: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/apbj/ijmc/2012/00000014/00000001/art00037

    Reply

  5. Rhesa Rozendaal

    Thanks!

    Reply

  6. Ralph H.

    hmm, looks like it is not avail­able yet.

    http://www.ijmc.org/Current_and_Past_Issues/Home.html

    Reply

  7. Alun Salt

    That just gets stranger and stranger. I down­loaded some­thing as a .docx file from a later issue at http://www.ijmc.org/Current_and_Past_Issues/Vol_15.1.html

    It’s pos­sible that the journal is get­ting trans­ferred to Ingenta and what’s vis­ible is the grind­ing of gears and sprout­ing of bugs as it hap­pens. I’ll try to remem­ber to go back in a couple of months to see if things have changed.

    Reply

  8. Ralph H.

    the bav­arian state lib­rary lists this journal as free to read pub­lic­a­tion. so i am pretty sure, it is either just an error, or they are just chan­ging it.

    quite nice to have access to almost all journ­als through that library.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_State_Library

    Reply

  9. Zephyr López Cervilla

    The art­icle is avail­able here, from page 25 (38 in doc­u­ment) to 41 (54):
    ijmc.org/Current_Past/Vol_14.1_files/ijmc14_1.pdf

    Reply

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