The Curious Case of Academic Journals

One of the prominent ways of ‘decorating’ our Curriculum Vitae (CV) is lacing it up with published research papers or articles in renowned academic journals. Not just students, but also teachers, scientists and academicians prefer submitting their works to noteworthy journals of their respective academic disciplines. In cases of public-funded research, the journals get the research almost free of cost, but they charge exorbitant amounts in giving access to these academic articles. Elsevier, the biggest academic journal publisher, made a profit of $1.2 billion on revenues of £2.1 billion in 2011. Yes, it does make Murdoch look like a socialist! In this blog post, I will discuss two possible solutions to this significant problem, first, getting rid of the system of journals altogether and secondly, open access journals along with their pros and cons.

Public.Resource.Org and others petition Bureau of Indian Standards for Open Access

(Image Source https://flic.kr/p/aCWXFf)

Public.Resource.Org along with other civil liberties advocates in India and Abroad has filed a petition with the Bureau of Indian Standards asking it to make its standards publicly available for free online. The petition is an commendable and crucial step forward for the right to information. The supporters of the petition include Carl Malamud, the founder of Public.Resources.Org, the petitioning organisation, Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, the Father of the Internet, Sri Sam Pitroda, one of the pioneers of communications innovation in India, Swaraj Paul Barooah (KnowGAP, SpicyIP), Dr. Sushant Sinha (IndianKanoon), Dr. Dhrubayyoti Sen (IIT-Kharagpur), Dr. T.I. Eldho, IIT-Bombay, and Mr. Srinivas Kodali, Centre for Excellence in Urban Transport, IIT-Madras.