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> Some, however, expressed concern about the impact on junior faculty members, who must publish to advance their careers. Elsevier’s journals signal prestige in
by smhost 8y ago
> Some, however, expressed concern about the impact on junior faculty members, who must publish to advance their careers. Elsevier’s journals signal prestige in the academic job market.
> many existing journals have an established brand, community, and track record — all helpful markers for junior scholars in the tenure process.
it seems odd to me that academic prestige isn't controlled by the universities. you'd think that that's something they can create on their own.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoHow would you define “the university?” A central all powerful administrator? Even in a department, a faculty member is necessarily judged more by their peers on the outside unless a specialty happens to be concentrated.
- smhost 8y agoby "the universities", i meant the rituals and ceremonies performed by academics in general. isn't prestige really just a social construct? the universities literally contain all the individual high-status academics, the privileged social circles, and all the peers required for evaluation of merit. they have all the capital, is what i'm talking about.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoYes, universities are social constructs, so there is no monolithic construct to change.
- smhost 8y agothat seems like a bit of a non sequitur, because monoliths can be constructed. like how game companies create prestige among a disorganized community by sponsoring official tournaments, for example. and you don't necessarily need to deal with a monolith, you just need a popular consensus, which it sounds like there already exists. so my confusion is how did the universities lose the ability to decide their own self-worth. how did this get outsourced.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoUniversities long ago outsourced faculty evaluations based on the impact of their research measured by conference/journal impact. The system is heavily flawed, but the inability of an expert in A to judge an expert in B is a very real problem, so they just look at their academic impact instead, which is determined mostly by journal acceptance via peer review.
- robertAngst 8y ago>it seems odd to me that academic prestige isn't controlled by the universities. you'd think that that's something they can create on their own. The older I get, the less I respect published papers, and academia. Politics over proof, it keeps showing its ugly face in results, in the process of picking a topic to study, and who gets the research money.