The first scholarly journals appeared in 1665, and since then, they have not paid authors, peer reviewers, or editors. “All the key players have been giving away their work for 350 years,” says Suber. “Scholars write journal articles for impact, not for money. They are freed to do this because they have salaries from their institutions.” Yet the physical aspects of print technology, still cutting-edge in the seventeenth century, today limit scholars’ ability to circulate their ideas and findings. Now, Suber says, “the Internet allows them to give it away to the whole world.”
Some peer-reviewed research may involve a microscopically small topic that interests only a handful of people worldwide. “There is no market value in that,” Suber notes. “If academics had to focus on what might sell, rather than what might be true, they would find themselves writing more on popular subjects and less on their research specializations. Tenure protects you from being fired for voicing unpopular ideas. Open access protects you from the market. You can write what you think is true, even on a very small topic or on something, like evolution, that angers people.” full: http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/01/the-wild-west-of-academic-publishing#article-images _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
