Bruce Bartlett, who also appears in the post “Bruce Bartlett on Careers in Economics and Related Fields” gave this reaction to my presentation “On the Future of the Economics Blogosphere”:

I think you missed an opportunity to criticize academic journals for excessive cost and severe paywall constraints. The inability of many readers to access the underlying research is a major problem for blogs to advance serious debate. While in many cases, working paper versions can be located, this applies to only a fraction of the research that is out there. You should criticize academics who don’t post their work in places like SSRN or on personal web sites. My understanding is that unless you literally sign away your rights, you have the right to post your own work on your own web site.

In other words, each of us who produces published research has a lot of discretion to make the results of our research available inexpensively. Let’s do it.