Imagine...
DEFCON
Some guy: "Wow, Homeland Security is really trying to keep us safe, look, they even got snipers.
Me:"Ouch, Goddamn... Someone set us up the tracking"
Big Brother "We get signal... Main screen turn on. Move all agents for great justice"
Many of us have been debating the rationale of having authors pay for their work, but most PI's wouldn't mind the fees, simply due to the free access to papers. Right now, there are companies that charge rediculous prices for access, paper or digital to science. Sure journals are expensive to publish and archives expensive to maintain, but companies like Elsevier just fleece everyone because they can (sound familiar?-- except I've never had a paper BSOD on me). If I wanted to get a copy of my paper in Immunological Letters, I would be out 25 dollars for the privledge. A little open access will be wonderful for everyone.
I know I would welcome some kind of database of techniques and protocols. Current Protocols is great, but im just a poor student, I certainly cant not eat for a few months to afford CP in anything.
Scientists have payed page charges for years, it is nothing new at all. If you only publish in journals that don't have page charges, you risk low readership of your work, and low numbers of citations. Publish or perish is NOT what most people think it to be. The number of citations your paper receives is more important than the number of articles you write, so paying a few thousand dollars to get your paper into a more respectable journal is easily justified.
Unforunately, science has been in the hands of those with the most money for a long time now. Studies cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most comes from Government and Private grants. These grant bodies chose to whom and for what ends they give their money. There is a peer review process here as well, but there still is a certain amount of direction and control exerted by a relative few.
The purpose of any Journal is not promotion of the authors of a study, but to disseminate their results and interpretation of data. Scientists don't "make a name" for themselves for doing poor work, regardless of what journal publish it. Sure, ambitious scientists strive to be someone everyone knows by name, but to say that is the ends of most literature is simply rediculous.
Your concern of peer-review is probably not a concern for most of the respectable scientific community. Articles that have not been peer reviewed simply lack a certain credibilty, even if you personally know the PI.
As a biologist, I can share that most biology journals have page charges. It's just something you accept and live with. A couple hundred dollars on a publication is nothing, considering how important pubs are to your career. Frankly, I can spend upwards of a thousand dollars in an afternoon in reagents and supplies, so in the grand scheme of things, paying for publications doesnt really seem that bad at all.
Fingerprints may be unique, but identification techniques aren't. That is unless, when you leave fingerprints do you so at a nice constant pressure, on a reasonably oil free surface. But as someone who routinely extracts nucleic acids as a living, I have a hard time beleiving the claims of extraction long after the fingerprint has been deposited. DNA isn't exactly heat stable, not to mention the legal disaster if you.. ahem.. had someone elses DNA on your fingers...
Slashdot Mirror
SkyNet is well on its way to operational status. Unfortunately, the server can only go as far as its power cord.
/.'ed so quickly.
I guess thats why it was
Imagine... DEFCON Some guy: "Wow, Homeland Security is really trying to keep us safe, look, they even got snipers. Me:"Ouch, Goddamn... Someone set us up the tracking" Big Brother "We get signal... Main screen turn on. Move all agents for great justice"
Many of us have been debating the rationale of having authors pay for their work, but most PI's wouldn't mind the fees, simply due to the free access to papers. Right now, there are companies that charge rediculous prices for access, paper or digital to science. Sure journals are expensive to publish and archives expensive to maintain, but companies like Elsevier just fleece everyone because they can (sound familiar?-- except I've never had a paper BSOD on me). If I wanted to get a copy of my paper in Immunological Letters, I would be out 25 dollars for the privledge. A little open access will be wonderful for everyone.
I know I would welcome some kind of database of techniques and protocols. Current Protocols is great, but im just a poor student, I certainly cant not eat for a few months to afford CP in anything.
Scientists have payed page charges for years, it is nothing new at all. If you only publish in journals that don't have page charges, you risk low readership of your work, and low numbers of citations. Publish or perish is NOT what most people think it to be. The number of citations your paper receives is more important than the number of articles you write, so paying a few thousand dollars to get your paper into a more respectable journal is easily justified.
Unforunately, science has been in the hands of those with the most money for a long time now. Studies cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most comes from Government and Private grants. These grant bodies chose to whom and for what ends they give their money. There is a peer review process here as well, but there still is a certain amount of direction and control exerted by a relative few.
The purpose of any Journal is not promotion of the authors of a study, but to disseminate their results and interpretation of data. Scientists don't "make a name" for themselves for doing poor work, regardless of what journal publish it. Sure, ambitious scientists strive to be someone everyone knows by name, but to say that is the ends of most literature is simply rediculous.
Your concern of peer-review is probably not a concern for most of the respectable scientific community. Articles that have not been peer reviewed simply lack a certain credibilty, even if you personally know the PI.
As a biologist, I can share that most biology journals have page charges. It's just something you accept and live with. A couple hundred dollars on a publication is nothing, considering how important pubs are to your career. Frankly, I can spend upwards of a thousand dollars in an afternoon in reagents and supplies, so in the grand scheme of things, paying for publications doesnt really seem that bad at all.
Fingerprints may be unique, but identification techniques aren't. That is unless, when you leave fingerprints do you so at a nice constant pressure, on a reasonably oil free surface. But as someone who routinely extracts nucleic acids as a living, I have a hard time beleiving the claims of extraction long after the fingerprint has been deposited. DNA isn't exactly heat stable, not to mention the legal disaster if you.. ahem.. had someone elses DNA on your fingers...