3 ms·
We don't even need publishers! Just remove them entirely from the equation! PDFs can be hosted on the net for a trivial cost.
by em3rgent0rdr 3y ago
We don't even need publishers! Just remove them entirely from the equation! PDFs can be hosted on the net for a trivial cost.
- derefr 3y agoAre we talking about textbook publishers, or journal publishers? For textbooks, I completely agree; but part of the value of journals is 1. (purported) peer review of the articles as a prerequisite to publication, and 2. a hierarchy of journal importance, where only the most ground-shaking things "make the cut" for the "highest" journals, thereby allowing people to follow a field "from the top down" by reading the top N journals (which should confer "most" knowledge of updates in the field, while dropping most noise; a bit like reading the first N paragraphs of a news article written in inverted-pyramid style.) I know that trait #1 is on shaky ground these days, and trait #2 is something most people don't even publicly acknowledge is valuable. But they're both things that, if we discarded the current model of journals, we'd be doomed to reinvent (and therefore to produce new middle-men out of.) If we're to have a proper replacement for journal publishers, it would have to perform these functions, while not being so parasitic about it. (As just one idea, maybe journals could be run as nonprofit or industry-membership-funded bodies, rather than as corporations.)