Jstor Plant Science

aaron floden aaron_floden@yahoo.com
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:57:13 PST
JSTOR, Elsevier, Springer, etc., all of them publish the paper or electronic journals and then charge subscription prices to access them. Submitting an article usually means an author, or authors, give up their copyright to the material and are not even allowed to share their own work. The newer digital-age journals have no publishing costs (except for color), usually free access to all, and also have quicker turn around times. It is fortunate that some people have realized the changes the web has brought to the world while others begin charging higher prices for outdated, mostly boring full journal issues. The older generations still frequently criticize the young upstarts for their weekly updates, or publish on demand articles, but they are just as much peer-reviewed, and as viable as the alternatives.

Aaron Swartz did what he did because he believed the knowledge behind paywalls should be free to those who fund it. Most research, that we have an interest in on PBS, is funded by tax payers money to pay for the research, pay for the publication costs, and then those same tax payers then have to pay a second time to access it. The failed SOPA had provisions to ensure paywalls to protect material developed by those means.

 There are ways around this. Your local university should have guest computers in the libraries from which access to many journals is available. If not there, then Biodiversity Heritage Library and Botanicus both have access to many of the older and non-copyright materials. Google used to have a lot, but these have not been removed. 

 Aaron, where 3 papers every two weeks would not be sufficient.....



--- On Thu, 1/24/13, Lee Poulsen <wpoulsen@pacbell.net> wrote:

From: Lee Poulsen <wpoulsen@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Jstor Plant Science
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013, 4:58 AM
However, if you have heard the recent, unfortunate story of computer prodigy Aaron Swartz, you might also have heard that JSTOR has begun a free limited access program to all their journals for the general public. I think that after registering for it, you are allowed access to 3 articles in their entirety every two weeks. (Aaron Swartz apparently unlawfully downloaded millions of articles from JSTOR, and after reportedly being hounded by the Justice Department for months and then charged with a felony, committed suicide a couple of weeks ago. JSTOR announced their new program, Register & Read <http://about.jstor.org/rr/>, just days before this occurred.)

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m





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