When major changes occur in an institution or profession, key values and goals should be kept in mind. For academia, of course, a primary goal is the growth, acquisition, and dissemination of knowledge. It appears that computers and networks may make the goal of obtaining knowledge less expensive with a large drop in the cost of moving, storing, and perhaps generating information.
Many practices in academia foster both the acquisition and
dissemination of knowledge.
The publication of results is encouraged, if not
mandated. Indeed, it is how most members of the academy are judged,
and how universities earn their reputations (which is, after all, the
major output of a research university). Thus, universities all but
demand the greatest dissemination of their scholar's production. To
support this, universities pay the salaries of scholars, pay for
the libraries full of books and journals which scholars use, pay
for travel to conferences, host seminars, and support the editorial
offices of journals. Academic associations, rather than maximizing
profits, work to support the acquisition and dissemination of
knowledge by hosting conferences, journals, abstract services, and the
like. Indeed, the AEA is purposely operating at a loss to reduce its
assets (Hinshaw 1996).
Individual academics are not usually
paid for refereeing,
and only some editorial positions offer any remuneration.
Academic information is readily, if not freely, available. Readily available information includes books and journals in libraries, some data from government agencies and many private organizations, journals and monographs in academics' offices, and presentations at conferences. Freely available material generally includes working papers and data from other academics, and a very substantial amount of government data (at least in the U.S.). In general, it could be said that a key principle of academe is the freest possible access to information produced by and for academics.
In a possibly tumultuous transition to a networked world, it is important to keep this principle of access to information at the lowest possible cost in mind. With a lower cost of disseminating and storing information, not only might the superstructure (the technology of moving information) change, but also the fundamental relationships between academics, libraries, and publishers might change as well.