Frank Chen, Open Access Unnecessary for Physicists, APS Physics, April 2007 (accessible only to subscribers). A letter to the editor. Thanks to Philip Johnson at Biocurious for the alert and, since I don't have access, for this excerpt:
It was interesting to read why a molecular biologist [Bill Hooker] supports open access [APS News, Back Page, February 2007]. Interesting but unimportant. He has no idea of how a physicist thinks. When I have an interesting problem to solve, I like to work on it myself and see how far I can get. If I come up with an elegant solutions, so much the better. I don’t want to first see what others have done and become biased and perhaps fall into the same pitfalls. The only time I access previous articles is when the referee forces me to.
I used to get paper copies of five journals. For lack of space, I have given up on all but two of them. I have [university-subsidized online access] to all of them, but I have not taken the time to look. Although it is good for archiving, open access doesn’t work for current literature except for people who have a lot of time on their hands....
PS: If I see more of these, I'll start a blog series: Creative Excuses.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/15/2007 10:44:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
