Controversy over scholarly publishing in leading science journals

The first issue of Nature, Nov 4 1869. Source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nature_cover,_November_4,_1869.jpg 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals?CMP=share_btn_tw

This came across my Facebook newsfeed today, but notice that the article was actually published in theguardian.com on Monday November 9, 2013. The story is about about Nobel Prize winner Randy Schekman's decision to stop publishing in the leading journals in his field:

Leading academic journals are distorting the scientific process and represent a "tyranny" that must be broken, according to a Nobel prize winner who has declared a boycott on the publications.

Randy Schekman, a US biologist who won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine this year and receives his prize in Stockholm on Tuesday, said his lab would no longer send research papers to the top-tier journals, Nature, Cell and Science.

Schekman said pressure to publish in "luxury" journals encouraged researchers to cut corners and pursue trendy fields of science instead of doing more important work. The problem was exacerbated, he said, by editors who were not active scientists but professionals who favoured studies that were likely to make a splash...

Click the link above for the rest of the article, which includes the fact that he has started his own online free journal: 

Schekman is the editor of eLife, an online journal set up by the Wellcome Trust. Articles submitted to the journal – a competitor to Nature, Cell and Science – are discussed by reviewers who are working scientists and accepted if all agree. The papers are free for anyone to read.

Recall that we discussed this trend in the first week of class. Once reason that I am having you research different venues for making arguments is that scholarly discourse worldwide is in the midst of great flux.