Fri 26th Feb 2010 - The future of academic publication

This week, Patrick will start the discussion on the future of academic publication.

Publication is an integral part of the growth of academic knowledge. But there has been raising concerns that the usual process is flawed and is becoming slowly irrelevant: too expensive, too slow, too opaque.
We will discuss the merits and relevance of the current system, examine alternatives put forward to improve it (electronic diffusion, open access, open peer-review system, etc.) and whether they can really make a difference.

A few very interesting background readings:

• The slowdown of the Economics publishing process (maybe is this optimal?)
• The very complete The economics of scholarly journal publishing
• An apology for the Open-process academic publishing process
  
• And the (tragically) funny How to publish a scientific comment in 1 2 3 easy steps

As usual, we will meet in STICERD common area this Friday at 6pm over drinks and nibbles.