[Open-access] An anti-RWA bill

[Nick Barnes]

On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:09, Björn Brembs <b.brembs at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Only having one Science paper made me not make the shortlist
> on a number of my applications, I've been told.
> How would that change?

That would change instantly if - as you describe - publication in a
top journal became an indicator simply of ability to pay, rather than
of quality.  Hiring committees don't care about ability to pay.

This is what I mean when I say that top journals are terrified of
losing their status.  They won't do anything which deters a
significant proportion of authors.  There is a significant snob value,
which feeds back into citation counts and impact factor, but
ultimately a journal is only indispensable if it has high-quality
content.

In any case, this is a ridiculous hypothetical.  Has it happened with
the NIH mandate?  I don't believe so (although nobody has answered my
request for first-hand experience).  So why are we even discussing it?
-- 
Nick Barnes, Climate Code Foundation, http://climatecode.org/