Art Unwin wrote:
Many of us have checked the net for the latest advances in antennas.
Advances are usually arrived at public university research units some
of which are partially funded by outside sources Most, if not all,
the results are presented to the IEEE as a way of getting recognision.
But this information such as advancement in science is not provided to
the public even tho they came from a public institution. Thus you
cannot access it on the net as a member of the public as access is
with held UNLESS
you hand over some money to the IEEE. Why are the universites not
sharing their work with the public?
Is it because academics feel they are part of a special club divorced
from the public? Ofcourse I may be wrong
in taking that view in light of the fact that these study results are
available in libraries but why are they not put on the web for the
good of science and the general public at large?
Art

This is a complex issue and one of considerable debate within those
universities AND the publishers of the journals.

1) The journals have operating costs (someone has to edit them and do
the typesetting and production).. these must be paid by subscription
fees and page charges from the author. Giving it away for free means
that other means must be developed for funding.

2) Not all the funding for research comes with a "must release to
public" clause. For instance, you might get a grant to defray part of
the cost of some research, and fund the remaining part out of your own
assets. The granting agency gets the data they want (at a lower cost
than paying for all of it), but you retain the rights.


3) Putting stuff on the web isn't free.

However, a LOT of newer research IS being published for free on the web.
PLOS (Public Library of Science), PubMed, arxiv, etc. are all examples.

Remember, too, that this is academia, and they tend to be conservative
and change slowly. To a certain extent, it IS an exclusive club,
because publication leads to promotion, and the publication process is
full of gates and wickets. The term "publish or perish" did not arise
out of thin air.