Why rock the traditional boat?
Many publishers are beginning to levy highly excessive charges on libraries. The IISc, which subscribes to the largest number of science journals in India, is struggling to maintain an acceptable library budget. But it was universities in California that first took up the issue of rising costs with publishers. Publishers see a wonderful commercial opportunity and are multiplying the number of journals. Commercialism in scientific publishing has exceeded acceptable norms. Why is scientific publishing becoming such a contentious area? The reason is simple. Much research in countries such as India is publicly-funded. Scientists do the research work and then publish their findings. But journals use these papers to make money. The real question is: do the commercial publishers give enough back to the community that keeps them going? Scientists need high profile journals to gain visibility for their work, and this enslaves them to publishers. They review papers submitted to journals as a fre
