[Terrapreta] Publications

[Nikolaus Foidl]

Dear All!

In the ongoing discussion  there we miss an important point, most of the
information generated today is paid by public money in form of labs,
salaries, facilities to do the research and so on. Therefore the obtained
information and data should be public as well. Now as some greedy companies
like Elsevier and others or the same universities living mostly on public
money have high jacked the field of information and sequestered the public
good to turn it into private income. Its unconceivable to pay for an article
30 to 40 US$ again although you already paid with your taxes this product
before.
An average literature search is at least 500 to 800 articles( the most
relevant on the subject you are investigating) and paying again for every
article this would be a drain of 25.000 to 30.000 US$ per search. I strongly
disagree with this corrupt praxis of illicit enrichment selling public good.
This sequestering of public good is a blow against development in science
because most interested people don't have the recourses to get the needed
information.
Shouldn't we fight this praxis of steeling public good?
Best regards Nikolaus Foidl