Many years ago I made the personal decision that if it wasn't available online in some form or other then as far as I was concerned it did not exist. I came to this conclusion after spending much wasted time searching in libraries for citations and then trying to get copies of journal articles or books. This was a personal decision but I believe many others now have made similar decisions.

The issue now becomes one of having authoritive online places where we can publish. Online Forum is a start along this track but for more scholarly indepth works we need to set up ways for the work to be seen to be authoritive and for it to be read and commented on by others in a more considered manner.

How about an online publishing place that works like the English Football League. You can publish and as your work gets more ticks - through references, formal reviews, accesses or through endorsement from others so you move up the league ladder. Our company can help with the identification side of things and with ideas on building such a system.

Have a form of payment where you pay to get your work published but you can "pay it off" by getting credits for reviews and comments you make on other's work. You can of course pay it off with money if you cannot be bothered contributing to the common good or institutions might pay for their authors to be published.

The setting up and operation of the publishing site could be financed as a public good by the research funding bodies or an innovation group.

In a recent edition of “Australian Educational Computing”, 2 Australian university academics encouraged Australian teachers to make use of 47 programs. Out of that only 1 program was produced in Australia.

Similarly will happen with textbooks, and eventually very little research will occur in Australia also.

The education system is now stagnant and sterile. It produces very little and imports almost everything, and when members of the education system keep encouraging other members of the education system to only import what they use, or to only consider what has been produced elsewhere, there is little likelihood that publishers will be interested in publishing an Australian academic book.

Who needs publishers? Put it up on Lulu and stop whingeing.

An excellent article, albeit depressing. It seems that economic rationalism and 'cultural cringe' are going hand in hand, and researchers such as Dr Gregg are losing out.

I am all for making one's research accessible and relevant to as wide a readership as possible. So, too, is Dr Gregg, or at least that's the impression one gets looking at the topic of her as yet unpublished book. 'Online culture' is playing a major role in so many lives across the world - how many of us use Facebook? Online banking and bill-paying systems? Youtube?

I hope Dr Gregg's article at least raises public interest in her book. That may increase its chances of being published. In the meantime, I am led to ponder what impact the 'global financial crisis' will have on early career researchers who don't want to speak only to a US academic audience

Melissa,
The problem isn't the publishers per se it's the (extreme sport) capitalist ethos we live under.
I agree that the profit first last and always is an absurd way to run a civilization and specifically it doesn't always give sufficient weight to meaningful research. The impact on informed debate is clearly devastating read letters to the editors listen to the uninformed ramblings of talk back radio and other media. Misrepresentation and sensation are what sells. Even the required rationality of Global Warming is over shadowed and rendered to comic book standards. God help something requiring objectivity to see the point, like your topic.

The point of the article (as I see it) clearly amplifies the furphy of the absolute correctness of currently practiced Uber short focused capitalism.

Tragically while I enjoy OLO at times it is a political site and as such the emphasis isn't always on intrinsic excellence but on the politics.

I tend to think that Fickle Pickle's idea isn't that far off the mark i.e. an online publishing site that publishes academically worthy articles, peer reviews(ed) papers and digital book samplers. and then sells etc the full manuscripts digitally.

The issue then comes down to the academics real purpose of writing ...to inform and progress academically or make money.
Either way there are models that may suit...think about it

Yup, the publishers will only be interested in profit, and are subject to back door influence. (Who you know is critical)
We are still disfiguring our school kids with massive physical texts because of the backward nature of our publishers, and the governments steadfast refusal to lead the industry. (Actually it will destroy the middlemen of the industry as well as the tree killing components, which is why they fight progress.)
I am hoping that "Saint Google" will come to our aid soon on this.
PageRank for publications, sort of a peer reviewing system as used in subject-oriented chat rooms will do the trick. We don't need the editor's role anymore as peer group selection and rigorous checking like Wikipedia does the job better. (Wikipedia was more accurate than standard texts in just a few years:hence their general demise)
Of course with the high potential for corruption the system must not allow anonymous input like the usual web practice. Even OLO style identities are not good enough. How many OLO IDs are the same person?
Anyone read Ender's Game?

Ozandy

What identity functionality is needed? Take a forum like OLO what sort of facilities would help make for better forums? Here are some possible rules.

Keep your identity hidden unless you want it to be revealed.
If someone asks for your identity then they must first say who they are before you will reveal who you are.
Ability to show validated "credentials" without revealing who you are.
If someone challenges your comments and opinions about a work and is not willing to reveal their identity to you then you can remove them.
You are always allowed to change what you have said or withdraw comments or remarks.
In other words you take control over what you publish and you can change your mind. (I'm not sure if the edits should still be there as in wikis or whether they should go)
You take responsibility for your articles and comments.

I am currently very privileged to be visiting South Africa where I have an honorary position at the University of Cape Town. (My position in Australia is Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney.) My role at UCT is delightfully to mentor researchers in my field (health economics) to help them to publish. They are from all over Africa. Many struggle to publish especially when English is not their first language - the language of the vast majority of academic publications. It is really hard for them to break through. It is not just a question of language but the whole culture of publishing is currently very western orientated. I don't know how many academic publishing companies there are in Ghana or Nigeria or the DRC where some of my young colleagues are from but my guess is not many. And for a international journal editor faced with an article on Australia or on Ghana, are the chances of publication equal I wonder?

Against that background the tone of the debate on this issue on OLO is rather pathetic.

Gavin Mooney