Unlocking Word Meanings
Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.
1. journal (n.) [jur-nl] – a magazine that contains reports from experts of a specific field
Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.
1. journal (n.) [jur-nl] – a magazine that contains reports from experts of a specific field
Example: Doctors keep
themselves updated by reading medical journals
often.
2. hand over (v.) [hand-oh-ver] – to give
Example: Before I was fired, my
boss told me to hand over my I.D.
3. subscribe (v.) [suhb-skrahyb] – to pay money to a company in order to receive their publications (newspapers,
magazines, comics, etc.) regularly
Example: He decided to subscribe to Time magazine so that he
could receive a copy every week.
4. peer (n.) [peer] – a person with a similar status or condition as others (in terms of age,
social status, school level, or qualifications)
Example: He is well-liked by his
peers in school because of his friendly
personality.
5. follow in somebody’s
footsteps (idiom) [fol-oh][in][suhm-bod-ee, -buhd-ee, -buh-dee][foot-step] – to follow what somebody else has done
Example: Apple’s iPad was so popular
that other companies started to follow Apple’s footsteps and create their own
tablets.
Article
Read the text below.
One of the world’s
largest research charity groups, WellCome Trust, will be launching an online journal called eLife in support of open access to research.
As an open access journal,
eLife will allow anybody to view its scientific research articles for free
over the Internet.
Currently, if
scientists wish to present researches to the public, they usually hand over their work to private
publishers. However, people can only access the researches by subscribing to the publishers’ journals.
Many scientists
believe this limitation is slowing down the rate at which new discoveries are made. Additionally, scientists think it is unfair
that data from publicly funded research is available only to people who can
pay.
So far, 9,200
scientists have said that they will boycott
giving researches to one of the biggest private publishing companies,
Elsevier. Scientists have posted their support for the boycott on the website
Cost of Knowledge, which was put up just for the protest.
Other scientists
worry open access journals may have low quality articles. But Robert Kiley of
WellCome Trust says that the quality of work will not change just because a
journal is free. He argues that even some paid-for journals have low quality.
Meanwhile, Graham
Taylor, a director at Britain’s Publishers’ Association, suggests that private
publishers may already be in the process of creating open access journals.
WellCome Trust itself hopes eLife could encourage paid-for journals to follow in its footsteps.
It may take time, however,
before open access becomes an accepted way of publishing scientific research.
Only around 50% of scientists have agreed to publish their works in open
access journals.
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Viewpoint Discussion
Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.
Discussion A
·
Do you agree that scientific research should be
available to everybody for free? Why or why not?
·
Can you think of some types of information that
should not be made available to everybody on the Internet? Why should these not be published?
Discussion B
·
Have you ever subscribed to any journal
magazine or newspaper? If yes, what was it about? If no, have you ever thought
about subscribing to one? Why or why not?
·
Would you say that the money people spend on
buying or subscribing to journals is well-spent? Why or why not?
