Abstract
This paper is a response to recent critiques of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC), including its Global Libraries Program. WAC should take greater leadership in addressing the current unequal state of international scholarly publication. Scholars from the global south disproportionately have more difficulty obtaining published works and fewer venues to publish their own research. This paper calls WAC to encourage and support local and non-English publications, open access works and journals, commons-based licensing, and e-repositories.
Résumé
Cet article est une réponse aux critiques récentes visant le Congrès Mondial d’Archéologie (World Archaeological Congress - WAC), notamment son Programme de Bibliothèques mondiales (Global Libraries Program). Le WAC devrait faire preuve d’un leadership plus fort pour porter remède à l’état d’inégalité actuelle de la publication internationale en matière de recherche. Les chercheurs du sud mondial ont de manière disproportionnée bien plus de difficulté pour obtenir la publication de leurs travaux et moins de supports pour publier leur propre recherche. Cet article est un appel au WAC afin qu’il encourage et soutienne les publications non-anglaises et locales, les travaux et journaux en libre accès, la licence collaborative et les dépôts d’archives électroniques.
Resumen
Este documento es una respuesta a recientes críticas del Congreso Arqueológica Mundial (WAC, del inglés “World Archaeological Congress”), incluido su Programa de Bibliotecas Mundiales. El WAC debería tomar un mayor liderazgo abordando el desigual estado actual de la publicación académica internacional. Los académicos del sur global tienen más dificultades, de manera desproporcionada, para obtener trabajos publicados y menos lugares para publicar su propia investigación. Este documento hace un llamamiento al WAC para que aliente y apoye las publicaciones locales y de habla no inglesa, que abra el acceso a trabajos y diarios, a licencias con bases comunes y depósitos electrónicos.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to the University of Southern California (USC) Archaeology Research Center for providing ongoing administrative support to the Global Libraries Program. Thank you to Lynn Swartz Dodd, Christine Borgman, and Cornelius Holtorf and the rest of the Global Libraries Program Committee for their guidance of the program.
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Sands, A. Scholarly Publication and WAC: The Need for a Critical Response. Arch 8, 12–17 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-012-9196-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-012-9196-x