5 ms·
The difficulty in escaping Springer/Elsevier is not that researchers are too dumb to organize their own journals/peer review. Quite the opposite, we already do
by xamuel 14y ago
The difficulty in escaping Springer/Elsevier is not that researchers are too dumb to organize their own journals/peer review. Quite the opposite, we already do that FOR Springer/Elsevier.
The difficulty is that existing publishers own journals which have gathered significant prestige over decades and sometimes centuries. And hiring boards, swamped and unable to take a closer look, often just look at which journals a prospect has published in. That means if you're not submitting to these prestigious journals, you're crippling yourself. And by submitting to them, you're adding to their prestige, making it a vicious self-feedback loop.
- mhluongo 14y agoI think this varies heavily per field- some disciplines are more collaborative (eg, CS) and others are more competitive (biomed).
- jff 14y agoBut if you get a prestigious mathematician, such as Gowers, to back your new journal, you may get some traction.
- jamessb 14y agoOr if you get the entire editorial board to resign, and start a new journal. This happened with the board of Topology (http://www.ams.org/notices/200705/comm-toped-web.pdf http://www.ams.org/notices/200705/comm-toped-web.pdf), who then set up the Journal of Topology. The new journal isn't open access, but it is cheaper. Then the editors of K-theory resigned to set up the Journal of K-theory, which was less than half the price of its predecessor.
- jacoblyles 14y agoThis remains a problem - that researchers in many field don't appreciate the utility of true open access (free to read and free to reuse). see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY Cheaper is nice, but free (and machine accessible!) lets us do things that have never been done before.
- chris_wot 14y agoSo can't you submit some papers to the prestigious journals, and others to the not so prestigious journals? Out of interest, does prestige really advance society and/or the sciences in any way? Genuine question - if the answer is yes, then how does it do this?