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I'd argue the research paper format itself is a significant part of the problem. It's simply far too verbose.
by rl3 11y ago
I'd argue the research paper format itself is a significant part of the problem. It's simply far too verbose.
- pavpanchekha 11y agoI can't recall the last paper that I had to fluff up to fill all 10 or 12 pages; nor do I remember any colleagues doing anything like that. In truth, every paper halves in size between the first good draft and the submission. Writing a good paper can take a month, and involve writing dozens of drafts (I wrote a post about this at https://pavpanchekha.com/blog/paper-section-stats.html https://pavpanchekha.com/blog/paper-section-stats.html). Now, you might say that the paper should contain less content. But what do you want to chuck? The technical sections are the whole point of the paper, and they're already squeezed to fit. Evaluation? But that only hurts the causes in this article. And the introduction, background, overview, and related work sections are frequently described by non-specialists as the most useful parts of a paper. Here's a paper I'm very proud of: http://herbie.uwplse.org/pldi15.html http://herbie.uwplse.org/pldi15.html What should I have cut?
- rl3 11y ago>What should I have cut? Nothing, because what you wrote conforms to expectations of the existing system. It's not your fault it works that way. I'm just saying that, as far the exchange of scientific knowledge is concerned, having everyone labor away on their respective research papers—then further spending inordinate amounts of time consuming others' papers—probably isn't the most efficient or effective system.
- aflyax 11y agoIt’s not that the paper itself is verbose. You’re expected to write a book in a paper. You’re supposed to give a full story, with beginning, middle, and end, with villains and heroes, with a successful invasion, a dynasty change, a civil war, and a period of peace, with the beginning of a colonization prospects. I had a perfectly fine study that had only electrophysiology. Suddenly, it had to include molecular biology. And pharmacogenomics. And epigenetics. And behavior… with administration of anxiolitic drugs. WTF?..
- stuxnet79 11y ago& that's if the research paper is even necessary in the first place. If there was some protocol for citing well thought out instruction videos, blog posts, blog comments, tweets .... pretty much the vast portion of scientific discourse that doesn't get published, we would be getting somewhere.
- drjesusphd 11y agoSuch a protocol does exist. And if tweets and instruction videos contained original and novel results, they would be worth citing.
- stuxnet79 11y agoI would still argue that culturally academia is mired in the research paper format, regardless of other communication breakthroughs. This to me is a problem.