Open Journal - A Subversive Proposal

introduction

The reason why wiki and academia represent opposing points of view.

activity	wiki	journal
publishing needs	freedom	publish or perish
editing	celebrates diversity: collaborate.	values originality: edit in secret.
citations	optional	mandatory
review	based on consensus with future editors.	secret peer review (it cannot be revised).
editor identity	can be anonymous.	identity is reputation.
format	web based.	print based according to the discipline's standard.

Opposing point of view naturaly lead to conflict. It apears that much of the best content in wikipedia is the work of academics. So why are these point of view so difficul to reconsile?

To properly answer this question, the stak holders must be examined.

The Stake Holders

The stake main holders are:

Publishers

their respected journals
journal editors
peer reviewers

academic institution

their libraries (pay for subscription)
their academic employees. (article authors and consumers)
their paying customers (students) AKA article consumers (have no voice)

Wiki sphere.
The wide public. (Finances all ventures above, has no voice)

Synthesis: Wiki Journal - A Proposal

* Open a Sister Project within Wikipedia for academic publication.

It would
It would have a (marginal) cost to edit.
It would place its contents into public domain but would host archival version of documents that are not editable.
It would require registration using real world/academic information.
It would compete with one journal in each discipline.
It shoud merge with projects that digitize academic article and open content databases.
It would provide real-time metrics on users.
It would have everything an article database should have.
It would allow to host raw data and code.
It would provide semi private editing surface for user collaboration before publication.

Strategy for Success

Wiki journals or a similar entity will one day replace all the existing paid for journals. This is clear since there is no longer any reason for these old institutions to exists except perhaps for the entrenced traditions.

Possible allies.

for profit orgenizations outside the Publishing world
owners of open content databases. (Patent databases)
national libraries
non profit projects digitizing academic of material out of copyright.
university library congolomorates
preprint archives

Expected Opposition

The Institutions.
University of microfilm.
Scholarly societies which own journals.
universities that own publishing houses.
Lobby by a few academic specialist publishers (Springer etc).

Since there is great resistance to the Wikipedia model in academia the only way such a proposal could hoe to succeed is by adopting a strategy that takes into account all the stake holders.

The immediate beneficiary will be universities. The next ones to enjoy these benefits would be no other than the publishing academics, as they will have greater academic freedom to publish once economic concerns are minimised from the academic world.

To gain acceptance as an academic publising vehiachale to further academic careers wikijournals would have to firs conform to current standards of academia. The first journals should use academics of move should be done

TODO

Add refrences Notes to meriam farber's cource on the subject.