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information suppression by universities
On Nov 25, 11:26*am, Jim Lux wrote:
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. Well said ! It pleases me that it is a subject of debate. If the publishing is part of the business then ofcourse the market decides whether it is read or not. One would have thought that public universities would also publish the benefits of their work for all and thus advertise the high standards of the university. From a ham radio point of view we have the ARRL organization but the do not seem interested in advances in the science even tho they have the vehicle (QST) to keep its members up to date. But it is not the private institutions that I point the finger at but the public institutions who now take on a mantle of private business by forcing students to buy high price text books where their is a feed back to them or increasing tuition costs that doesn';t seem to marry with the present market but yet are paid for by public funds. I suppose that the present state of affairs will continue if academia doesn't peruse the web or publish their thesis even tho they actually belong to the institution. In the mean time I am happy to make a over 100 mile round trip to a suitable library to spend a day reading on the premises as I am not allowed to visit Roswell. Thanks for your input Regards Art |
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