David Wiley has posted a parable of sorts regarding the current state of academic publishing. He compares it to someone who has created a brillant product, but is forced to distribute it under a draconian agreement with truckers. From the blog post:
Why do more faculty not see that, as researchers, we come up with ideas for research, find grant funding for the research, identify and hire graduate students and other professionals to perform the research with us, carry out the research, write up the results of the research in a clear and concise manner, and then are forced to surrender all our rights in the written results of our research to a publisher who sells them for his own profit?
