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Current Scientific Publishing Methods Problematic
A recent examination of current scientific publishing methods shows that they are problematic at best, treating the entire process like an economic system, with publishers as bidders at an auction, authors as sellers, and the community at large as consumers. "The authors then go on to discuss a variety of economic terms that they think apply to publishing, but the quality of the analogies varies quite a bit. It's easy to accept that the limited number of high-profile publishers act as an oligarchy and that they add value through branding. Some of the other links are significantly more tenuous. The authors argue that scientific research suffers from an uncertain valuation, but this would require that the consumers — the scientists — can't accurately judge what's significant. "
What is wrong with the free market? When has it ever failed us?
No, authors don't get paid to appear in journals like Science and Nature. In fact, in most cases the author pays a fee for the space in the journal. It's a total racket.
The benefit to the author is that he can put the paper in his CV. The more big name journals you publish in, the more likely it is that you'll get grant funding and that all important tenure. It's publish or perish out there.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I looked at scientific journals, and I honestly can't see much of an incentive to appear there. I mean sure, you might get published and that's got some merit...
Some merit? In many academic institutions, number of papers published in respectable journals is the preferred metric of performance, and will affect your promotion and the status/funding of your institution.
YMMV depending on the level of enlightenment and subject area of your institution - there are, of course, other aspects which can and should count - but number of papers is the "gold standard" and the safe bet.
If this were a scientific paper, I'd back that up with some references (but my institution definitely doesn't recognise /. karma and mod points, so I can't be arsed).
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
I'm a grad student in the natural sciences. Some other friends of mine and I started Labmeeting.com because we are so eager to help change the way science gets published.
The current system of peer review is inefficient, arbitrary, and hidden from public view. We definitely need something new, but, as we said in our talk at BioBarCamp a while back, change needs to be gradual enough to preserve consensus.
That's why we're starting by just trying to make research tools that are useful to scientists in their everyday professional lives.
I love Thomas Jefferson as much as the next American, but there are certain things you listen to him on and some things you don't. Civil liberties, the scope of government, certainly. The economy.... not so much.
Jefferson wanted us to farm our way to victory. Here's some primary source stuff on the subject for your edification/amusement.
Just because he's a founding father doesn't make him a visionary on everything. See also: slavery.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.