Today is a day on which I am really, really glad I don't work at an R1.
I'm here, about halfway up my second delightful slog up tenure hill, and I just had an article accepted in the top journal in the subfield. So yay, and that's another piece in the puzzle for not getting fired again.
I got an e-mail from the publisher last night saying that I can choose to have the article open access for only $2950.
So, of course, that's a conundrum, right? Cough up the money; improve your impact factor. I know for a fact that one of my earliest pieces has the most citations, and it was in one of the earliest journals in the field to have open access. I don't think it was that great of an article, so seriously, I am pretty sure the ability to Google it made a difference.
I know that in some other disciplines, page charges have been the norm forever, but they generally have those costs built into their grants. This is pretty new for me. I don't *think* New School is going to look at impact factor much, although we're in a transition to a more scholarship-focused institution, so who knows. But in any case, I don't have $2950 to give to this cause.
Also, it feels scammy.
Have you encountered this?
I'm here, about halfway up my second delightful slog up tenure hill, and I just had an article accepted in the top journal in the subfield. So yay, and that's another piece in the puzzle for not getting fired again.
I got an e-mail from the publisher last night saying that I can choose to have the article open access for only $2950.
So, of course, that's a conundrum, right? Cough up the money; improve your impact factor. I know for a fact that one of my earliest pieces has the most citations, and it was in one of the earliest journals in the field to have open access. I don't think it was that great of an article, so seriously, I am pretty sure the ability to Google it made a difference.
I know that in some other disciplines, page charges have been the norm forever, but they generally have those costs built into their grants. This is pretty new for me. I don't *think* New School is going to look at impact factor much, although we're in a transition to a more scholarship-focused institution, so who knows. But in any case, I don't have $2950 to give to this cause.
Also, it feels scammy.
Have you encountered this?
4 comments:
Sure; and in some cases (JoVE is a good if unique example) fees are the only option. I've never paid extra to move from restricted to open access, though: the several thousand $ didn't seem worth it.
Hello, I don't know that I've ever posted before on your blog :-) I'm a librarian at a University and sometimes the library has funds or means to make your writing open access. May be worth a try.
I was thinking along the same lines as librarianshines: my school, too, has a fund to subsidize open access, and I don't think that's unusual at places that are trying to raise their research profile.
At the very least, inquiring whether this is an expense your school might pick up would bring the matter to their attention, and perhaps shed some light on what metrics will be used in evaluating research for tenure.
I have never paid to have something open access. It seems like most journals are google-searchable without open access (the abstracts at least), and just about anyone affiliated with a university should have access to the journal through their university's library.
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