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Are Academic Journals Obsolete?
Writing "Surely there is a better way," eggy78 asks "With the ability to get information anywhere in the world in seconds, and the virtually immediate obsolescence of any printed work, why are journals such an important part of academic research? Many of these journals take two or more years to print an article after it has been submitted, and the information is very difficult (or expensive) to obtain. Does this hinder technological advancement? There are certainly other venues for peer review, so why journals? What do they offer our society? Are they just a way to evaluate the productivity of professors?"
The journals do a good job, for the most part, at keeping out well-paying stupidity. If your article is genuinely bad, you'll have a hard time getting it published anywhere high-profile. Really--you can come in with as much money as you want, and you still won't be considered relevant. If you disagree, please provide at least two examples.
The journals are not needed. There should be no censorship at all except for cases of criminal behavior. Everything should be published and the worldwide market of ideas is the right mechanism to decide what to retain and what to reject. That is why the internet is so important for the cross-pollination of ideas. Money is no object. Almost anybody and everybody who has access to a computer and the internet can publish their work, free of charge. Survival of the fittest. It is a beautiful thing.
Scientific journals, OTOH, discourage cross-pollination and encourage intellectual incest within a small group. Nobody but those within the group have the power to decide whether or not ideas generated by the group are valid. This is the reason that, even though a lot of what passes for science lately is laughable BS of the stinking kind, it is still surrounded with an aura of excellence. Why? Because the elite has managed to establish istself as the authority and uses the government (and government guns) to impose its authority on society and the classroom. It is the one true religion, all over again.