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This was a fresh take a decade ago, when altmetrics were all the rage. If this was going to happen, it would have happened by now. The arxiv and the web have ex
by humanistbot 4y ago
This was a fresh take a decade ago, when altmetrics were all the rage. If this was going to happen, it would have happened by now. The arxiv and the web have existed for decades, "academic Twitter" has been a thing for a decade, and legacy journals are still as powerful as ever.
So-called "high-impact" journals perform a gatekeeping, credentialing, and attention-focusing function that is valued by the institutions of academia. What you and most people on HN probably see as a bug is a feature to them. It is part of why I left, to be honest.
- andrewflnr 4y agoA decade is far too short a time span for a shift like that. I'm aware that journals are quite entrenched; I've heard the phrase "publish or perish". If it happens, it'll be on more of a generational time scale. It has to be proven possible for someone to make a career without getting "published". Maybe by the time we're both almost dead, truth will be enough. :) And yeah, all those features you mention that academia values are useful for the press, too. It's really handy to have a finite set of vetted sources, rather than trying to keep track of the reputations of various scientists and use that to parse their comment threads. That's why I said it will be rough.