[Buddha-l] value in academic publication

[bob Woolery]

It seems to me that an academic publisher is adding paper and distribution
to the intellectual property and its validation, both of which appear to be
paid in prestige, but not money.
  Electronic publication should have broken the logjam, and made academic
publication no more expensive than website hosting.  
   Manuscripts of proported original contributions are offered free, or more
often, with the promise of a bribe (page charges), and AFAIK, reviewing
peers are at best given only nominal compensation. 
  So the underlying value is free, professional validation is cheap, and if
published only on the web, paper, binding, and distribution disappear.

It seems that the publishers are making a profitable enterprise almost
solely on the backs of underpaid academics who, curiously,  are also the
sole market for these goods.
  Could academics follow the lead of the original United Artists in movies,
and band together to revolutionize journal and text publishing??
  
   The price of access might be one accepted article or ten peer reviews or
$50. per year.  
  

Bob Woolery, DC
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