It may be an urban legend, but they say that the average academic article is read by a grand total of 6 people. That's not an inspiring thought, especially for those of us who spend our time writing those articles!
You can pin low readership on all kinds of factors. But my longstanding gripe has been the fact that many academic journals keep articles cloistered behind pay-walls and inaccessible to anyone without a costly personal or institutional subscription. In my area of climate policy research, it seems to me that it borders on unethical to keep policy makers and the public from accessing the most recent research as easily and quickly as possible.
So it was great to see this week that both UN-Habitat and Routledge have put up a small trove of open access publications.
Read more...
Recent Posts
News
Recently Read (del.icio.us tags)
About
This is a blog for news and views on the future of sustainable cites. I try to update things two or three times a week.
You can also find my writing on urban redesign and sustainability in ReNew Canada, The Mark, worldchanging, and other more specialized academic publications.
Info on my consulting work, c.v. and current research focus is all here.