[RyanMcGreal]

The discussions we're having about open access publishing are based on the understanding that new communications technologies specifically target those parts of academic publishing that cost money - the formatting, layout, publication and distribution of articles.

That's why we're able to have a conversation about open access in the first place: the original source of scarcity has mostly evaporated, but Elsevier et al. are still collecting rentier profits from the artificial scarcity of access to a printing press.

The part of academic journals that actually creates value - i.e. the work of writers, reviewers and editors - is mostly unpaid work anyway.

[thirdstation]

Ahh. Then you are mistaken Mr. McGreal. I give no credit at all to the production of academic sausage :-)

Yes, it's cheaper to produce an archive-ready article and I think it should have moved into the category of solved problems long ago. It just hasn't.

Like you said, the industry is ripe for disruption. It has been for over a decade.

Anyway, I think we are generally on the same side.

If you haven't already read the following you should: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic...

He also makes the "rentier capitalism" analogy.

[RyanMcGreal]

Thanks for clarifying - and thanks for sharing the Monbiot column. I hadn't seen it before.