An article on a new open access agreement, signed by five elite universities. The agreement compels the universities to develop systems to pay open access journals for the articles they publish by the institutions' scholars.
The article presents different viewpoints on whether or not this proposed model is a good one. (A good string of comments at the end of the article too.) We wonder in particular about the implications for museum and applied anthropologists. If scholars are not part of a university system, but employed in small institutions, non-profits, or even private companies, is requiring payment in order to publish truly equitable and sustainable? This agreement is perhaps a visible struggle of the contending goals of opening up a journal's readership while still encouraging broad authorship.
Jason Baird Jackson -- current editor of Museum Anthropology Review, and former editor of our own Museum Anthropology -- is quoted. Jackson voices some legitimate concerns, but offers that in principle, this compact is an "awesome thing." We agree that the agreement seems to open up some very exciting possibilities.
The article presents different viewpoints on whether or not this proposed model is a good one. (A good string of comments at the end of the article too.) We wonder in particular about the implications for museum and applied anthropologists. If scholars are not part of a university system, but employed in small institutions, non-profits, or even private companies, is requiring payment in order to publish truly equitable and sustainable? This agreement is perhaps a visible struggle of the contending goals of opening up a journal's readership while still encouraging broad authorship.
Jason Baird Jackson -- current editor of Museum Anthropology Review, and former editor of our own Museum Anthropology -- is quoted. Jackson voices some legitimate concerns, but offers that in principle, this compact is an "awesome thing." We agree that the agreement seems to open up some very exciting possibilities.