4 ms·

I am afraid this piece is missing the most massive reason that articles are still published in journals - Impact Factor. Academics live and die not just by the

I am afraid this piece is missing the most massive reason that articles are still published in journals - Impact Factor. Academics live and die not just by the number of articles that they get published, but, crucially, where they get published. The entire academic system of progression is basically controlled by the journals. The reason that the splashy websites never succeed is that they have targeted the wrong problem. If you want to fix the system then you have to come up with a new way of rating academic's publications, which would then be fed back into the career progression system in their individual institutions. Good luck with that.

iandanforth 9y ago
While this is true in many institutions there are now useful proxies, specifically a Google Scholar profile or an individual h-index which can be calculated without publication impact factor. You are correct that it will take a long time to update documentation and policies that reference impact scores, but informally, at least in Machine Learning, people know who the contributors are with high actual impact. In addition because a lot of impactful work is coming out of industry and there is rapid turnover between academia and industry the culture as a whole is evolving.
- dunk010 9y ago
  Of course there's an untruth in what I said. Ostensibly it's all about Impact Factor, but in reality it's all about how much money you are bringing in. Academia is in a sad state.