Minerva's owl. A response to John Houghton and Charles Oppenheim's 'The economic implications of alternative publishing models'

Hall, M

Abstract

Like Hegel’s owl of Minerva, scholars are arriving at the realization of the existence of the knowledge economy after dusk. (Drahos and Braithwaite, 2002, p. 39)

Houghton and Oppenheim’s cost–benefit analysis of different forms of scholarly publishing is a major contribution in considering the case for open access and for open institutional repositories as a standard resource in publicly-funded universities. Understanding these issues through empirically-informed profiles of national systems of research and innovation is a significant advance, but to focus only on this is to be distracted from significant and more general issues about the ways in which knowledge is produced, particularly in universities, and the requirements and opportunities for such work in the contemporary knowledge economy. As with Hegel’s owl of wisdom, the true meaning of major new ways of doing things can only be appreciated later in the day, when both the innovation and its implications are clearer.

Citation

Hall, M. (2010). Minerva's owl. A response to John Houghton and Charles Oppenheim's 'The economic implications of alternative publishing models'. Prometheus, 28(1), 61-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/08109021003676375

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 24, 2010
• Deposit Date: Apr 6, 2010
• Journal: Prometheus
• Print ISSN: 0810-9028
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 61-71
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08109021003676375
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08109021003676375