the problem is complicated more so with academic tenure requirements including being published x number of times in journals of a certain stature - and if you are tenured and not publishing in these journals, you are considered less than serious. one would think that universities would support the move away from the current journal situation, as their libraries are spending FORTUNES on subscription fees - in essence, buying back the research which they funded to begin with.
- linda 4-24-2001 6:46 pm

That's an interesting point I hadn't considered. I guess there is some sense of credibility that is bestowed on a journal precisely because it is not very accessible. I guess that's why people call it the ivory tower. Not just anyone can come inside. Oh well, I don't think the university system as we now know it has very long left. If there's one thing that is clear the internet is actually revolutionizing it is those areas which operate exclusively in the intellectual (in other words: easily digitizable) realm. I wonder what efforts like this MIT plan to put most of its coursework up on the Web over the next ten years will have on the closed world of the university?
- jim 4-24-2001 11:48 pm

Here's more info on the MIT plan.

"The idea behind MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is to make MIT course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. MIT OCW will radically alter technology-enhanced education at MIT, and will serve as a model for university dissemination of knowledge in the Internet age. Such a venture will continue the tradition at MIT and in American higher education of open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought, and will help lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges and universities engage the web as a vehicle for education."