[Open-access] [open-science] Open Science Anthology published

[Mark MacGillivray]

I can't let this particular piece of misinformation slip by. Just as well I
have access to this discussion so that I, and others, may correct you.

On 27 Jan 2014 14:49, "Heather Morrison" <Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca>
wrote:
>
> Another reason why I think scholars and funding agencies alike should
hesitate before demanding CC-BY is the potential for derivatives to cause
harm through the spread of misinformation. My understanding of the study of
toxicology is that a common saying, for good reason, is that the difference
between a drug and a poison is a dose. Unleashing the creativity involved
with automated derivatives may have benefits, but if a doctor is relying on
a derivative that inserted a zero in the wrong place, the result could be
death. Note that I am not demanding that derivatives be forbidden, rather
suggesting that there are substantive reasons for hesitation about
requiring that all scholarly works permit derivatives on a blanket basis.

Your argument here has absolutely nothing to do with cc-by, and everything
to do with quality of research and the ability to assess and correct it and
to make it appropriate for consumption by particular user communities.

You can tell by the fact that your example postulates an incorrect cc-by
derivative and implies it is comparable to a non-cc-by but correct
derivative. Thus you implicitly assume, and obfuscate from your reader the
option to independently judge, that all non-cc-by works can somehow be
taken to be correct by virtue of their license condition.

However I could already take a piece of your work, regardless of license
condition (and I could pay to access it if necessary), and write my own
work with reference to and reliance upon yours. But my own work could be
quality, or terrible, or purposeful fraud. I could succeed in publishing my
new work under any form of copyright I desire, and in a highly reputable
and expensive journal.

My point being, you can spread misinformation as much as you like,
regardless of copy rights.

So the choice is, would you rather make it easier or harder for others to
access and independently verify your claims?

I would further argue that if particular forms of copy right are capable of
imbuing quality as your argument suggests, despite the fact that nowhere do
the definitions of any form of copy right make guarantees as to the quality
of works to which they are attached, then the very concept of copy right is
inappropriate for application to scholarly works.

Mark




>
> Now to explain just how fortunate Bjoern and others in his situation are:
>
> If your university and research are 100% publicly funded, then I would
suggest that this is a special case. I would argue that this should be the
norm - I favour fully publicly funded higher education. However, in much of
the world this is not the case.
>
> Some reading:
>
> Denhart, Chris. Forbes July 2013: how the $1.2 trillion college debt
crisis is crippling students, parents and the economy:
>
http://www.forbes.com/sites/specialfeatures/2013/08/07/how-the-college-debt-is-crippling-students-parents-and-the-economy/
>
> Freeman, Sunny, July 2013 Huffington Post Canada: Student Debt Canada:
Post-Grads Delay Adult Life, Struggle with Payments, TD says:
>
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/24/student-debt-canada-_n_3646153.html
>
> TD is Toronto Dominion, a very conservative Canadian bank. This is Forbes
and TD explaining that student debt is a huge issue.
>
> In Canada and the US student debt is non-forgivable; it cannot be
discharged in bankruptcy, no matter what. I argue that we are in effect
asking the next generation to take on this burden to "invest" in their
education then sign off on trade deals that have the effect of eliminating
a large portion of the high-paying jobs for which they were investing. This
is why I suggest that students, at least in North America, are in effect
subsidizing both universities and taxpayers. For example, in the case of
research, there are many grad students taking on a huge debt load some will
never recover from in order to do research in the public interest.
>
> North America is not unique, however. For example, see this article from
the Guardian on the desperate situation of universities in Greece:
>
> Smith, Helena, September 25, 2013. Austerity measures push Greek
universities to point of collapse.
>
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/austerity-measures-push-greek-universities-collapse
>
> Meanwhile, in the UK:
>
> Malik, Shiv. November 25, 2013. The Guardian. Poorest students face £350m
cut in grants.
>
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/nov/22/poorest-students-face-350m-cuts
>
> The cuts to student funding in the UK are particularly troubling to me in
the context of UK's publisher-friendly open access policy. It strikes me
that the UK is more concerned with the health of publisher profits than the
prospects of the UK's own next generation.
>
> best,
>
> --
> Dr. Heather Morrison
> Assistant Professor
> École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
> University of Ottawa
> 613-562-5800 ext. 7634
> http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
> Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca
>
>
>
>
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