Erik Marshall

I don’t know if just the blogs and sites I read, or if there really is a strong movement toward open-access, online journals. IHE had an article a few days ago about a paper journal that has gone online. The article says that the site has had 20,000 visitors vs hundreds of subscribers, but I wonder how that number translates to actual readers. I  imagine a lot of poeple are going there just because of the buzz it has received. That said, though, it is a good move, and I don’t understand why more journals don’t do this. Many argue that the costs would be lower (although there is some debate about that in the comments section of the aritcle), a journal could publish more articles per issue, and, perhaps most importantly, articles can reach a much larger audience.  See also danah boyd’s call for a boycott of locked-down journals.