Revision of whale catfishes

Post by **Silurus** » 04 Jul 2005, 04:30

Vari, RP, CJ Ferraris & MCC de Pinna, 2005. The Neotropical whale catfishes (Siluriformes: Cetopsidae: Cetopsinae), a revisionary study. Neotropical Ichthyology 3: 127â??238.

Abstract available here.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 30 Jul 2005, 09:36

This represents a lot of rework on the site as the changes are wide and numerous. Can you advise on the best procedure for getting a copy? I presume making the whole PDF available on the web is not likely to happen?

Jools

Post by **Silurus** » 30 Jul 2005, 09:39

You could ask the authors for a reprint, or (like me) join the SBI and get a subscription to the journal.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 30 Jul 2005, 09:59

I did think about joining, especially since "VOLUME 3(4) WILL BE DEDICATED TO NEW NEOTROPICAL CATFISHES", so the year's subscription is very interesting indeed. However, in a more general sense, what about someone wanting this paper in 30 years time?

Now, this might go off topic on the original post, so feel free to split it off, but how come so much money is made available for research (ACSI etc) yet still the output of all that great work (a) must be paid for and (b) isn't broadly available. I should say at this point I don't object to paying for work, but the costs for journals to an individual are prohibitive and exclude those without specialist access. Not to mention the small room required to house them.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm sure universities etc would actually make more out of these things if they had some sort of pay per download facility.

In fact, and now I am ahead of myself, image a paypal pay for download button on each catelog screen linked to fishbases' list of publications etc. I know this whole thing is much bigger than even just fish, but how good would that be!

If anyone wants a new "next big idea", go set-up napster for scientific papers...

</rant>

Jools

Post by **Silurus** » 31 Jul 2005, 17:10

I don't think it is the stated aim of the ACSI to make the original descriptions of the new taxa freely available to the general public (freely available to scientists yes, but not to the public as a whole).

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm sure universities etc would actually make more out of these things if they had some sort of pay per download facility.

Unfortunately, universities do not own copyright to the articles. The publishing companies do. These companies are commercial concerns (whose main objective is to make the journal profitable for them to continue running it). A pay per download scheme already exists for some of these companies (e.g. both Elsevier and Springer implement it, I think), but the price per article (something like $30) is somewhat more than the average layperson is willing to pay.

Post by **Dinyar** » 31 Jul 2005, 19:41

Actually, an increasing number of new papers in math, physics, chemistry, and yes, even biology, are being published online and are free to all. In biology, see the Public Library of Science (abbreviated as PLoS). I forget the name of the big "open-source" journal for physics, etc., but it starts with an "X" and sounds like "archive".

The traditional academic publishing industry is controlled by a few large publishers, who have come under increasing pressure lately. There was a big brouhaha in 2003-2004 when many university libraries, led by UC Berkeley, refused to pay the tens of millions of dollars in annual subscription costs for academic journals. Companies like Elsevier had all their journals dropped by several major universities. If I recall correctly, there was some face saving compromise where Elsevier slashed millions of dollars off the subscription costs of the universities that protested most vociferously.

But anyway, the trend is towards more scientific papers being published on the web only and being accessible to all. Of course, it costs time and money to scrutinize submissions, so there will be continue to be a place for for-fee journals.

Ichthyology is still a somewhat fusty old discipline, long dominated by white men with handlebar moustaches and pith helmets, but I dare say it too will change.

Post by **Silurus** » 31 Jul 2005, 20:33

Might take a while, because:

(a) the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature does not recognize a web-only publication as being "validly published".

(b) while there are a number of free-access online journals, many of them are very low-profile regional journals. Some of these journals are not places where one would look for quality research.