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I agree that individual academics can't change the system. But any given editorial board has it within its power to cut the publisher out of the deal and go ope
by civilized 5y ago
I agree that individual academics can't change the system. But any given editorial board has it within its power to cut the publisher out of the deal and go open access. When they do, they are often successful. But mostly they choose not to try.
- native_samples 5y agoThat's not even the only alternative. There are lots, even if universities simply stopped publishing in journals entirely. 1. Academic promotions could be decided internally based on their own evaluation of the research quality, instead of by reference to external decisions. 2. Papers could be sold via the universities own website. 3. University departments could produce their own "journals" that consist only of their own papers and ask people who believe in the universities brand to subscribe to that. 4. Universities could instead patent everything they come up with and allocate promotions based on accrued patent revenue, with the papers being essentially readable adverts for the patent licensing programme, etc. There are lots of ways to incentivize good research that don't involve journals at all.