Recently, there is an increasing discussion concerning the price for scientific literature. At university, it is no problem to get adequate information for free but in non-university villages, it might be impossible to get the current papers of scientific work for a adequate price. What is your experience?
In the case of universities, both undergraduate and postgraduate. Literature is achievable by the efforts of each university. The research centers have problems when they are not part of an alliance with institutions that facilitate access to the paid databases. Access for independent work is very limited. It would be necessary to carry out experimental or quasi-experimental works directly. To obtain a significant contribution and have participants with a lot of experience.
Dear Javier,
you are comepletely right. But if an institution has not the money to pay for the paid database and the literature, it is quite difficult to carry out experimental scientific work. And as a consequence, it might be difficult to get a participant with a lot of experience... .
Dear Tanja, I think that we live in a very contradictory world today, also with respect to scientific literature. On one hand, career concerns give an incentive to scientists to publish in scientific journals. Very often these journals are expensive (printed version, because not so many copies are needed), while online access is even more expensive, and many scientists cannot bear those costs.
At the same time, it is possible to put working papers for free for public view (for example, on Research Gate). This creates public good, but there are not many incentives for career concerned scientists to do that. They should be a bit altruistic.
Dear Yuri,
yes, I think, that there are some possibilities to get the paper for free. But I heard that there are some problems with the publishing companies and that there is an increasing number of litigations. Researchgate has some trouble with Elsevier and other publishing companies. Thus, I would not be surprised if the possiblity to upload own papers would be limited in future.
Pay-What-You-Want pricing could help gauge the (perceived) "worth" of scientific literature.
In October 2007, for example, English rock band Radiohead self-released its seventh album, In Rainbows, as a pay-what-you-want download. The album's pay-what-you-want release, the first for a major act, made headlines around the world and sparked debate about implications for the music industry. (In December 2007, Thom Yorke—the principal songwriter—declared that Radiohead had made more money from digital sales of In Rainbows than from those of all previous Radiohead albums combined.
PS: Pay-What-You-Want is a pricing strategy that lets buyers choose what to give in exchange for a commodity (or service), sometimes including zero. In some cases, a minimum price may be set and/or a suggested price may be indicated. Buyers can also pay amounts higher than the suggested price. Pay-What-You-Want pricing has long existed on the margins of the economy—notably in the form of tips to waiters and street performers as well as donations to charities—but seems to be gaining interest as the earlier example suggests.
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