nodalpoint.org - Alas, The Scientist! - Comments

library access

chris — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:14:53 -0500

I would guess the common recourse is to either use a public library (which probably won't have subs to specialist journals of any sort, as they cost too much); or obtain a life/outside membership to an academic library.

The Imperial College/Museum of Science library, for instance, gave memberships (for a rather hefty fee, as I recall) to alumni, supporters/friends of the museum, and also issued day passes. Some of these, particularly the latter, had restrictions on loans, but all in house facilities, such as electronic journal access, were available.

If, on the other hand, you live somewhere far removed from an academic library, you're pretty much screwed. But if you're that far away from an academic centre, with no links to one, you're probably not doing very much anyway...

Bundled

Greg — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:49:42 -0500

I never found The Scientist to be that exceptional that I would want to pay for it. I was quite surprised to find that all the latest articles that I clicked on were subscription only. You couldn't even get a preview of the article ?

I suspect that subscription to The Scientist will be bundled with other subscriptions and that you will eventually get access. Nonetheless I wonder how it feels being a non-academic (i.e. no access to uni library ejournals) when you are interested in a scientific paper and discover that information generated by scientists funded by your tax dollars is inaccessible.

Alas, The Scientist!

Neil — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 05:54:51 -0500

Regular readers may know of my fondness for The Scientist, an online science news publication with a lot of varied and insightful articles. To my dismay, I just discovered that it now requires non-free subscription. Has anyone ever tried to convince their library to subscribe to something? I don't imagine it's easy in these times when we're losing journals in vast swathes. The Scientist has been around for years and has been free as long as I remember - I can only assume they've become popular and decided to cash in on it. Be warned Scientist - the internet is full of quality free writing; unless you're exceptional, people will just go elsewhere.