Dear Mark, and all,
Great videos. Sorry to be slow on this important theme, I have just got
back from some intensive travel in China.
Mark asks at the end of the first video "why (in an uncertain world) do
we continue to put so much emphasis on the academic journal".
In answering, I would not disagree with any of Mark's comments, but I
would stress the policy and political entanglement of technology. In the
past there was no alternative to print media, and so no need to enforce
the hegemony of the journal in the ways that Mark has outlined. The
publishers and universities who were passive recipients of the tribute
of the academic community as if by right (where else would you go), are
now forced to take an active role in order to maintain their preeminence
in the new technological environment. They use their existing position
to avert threats to their future control, through coordination on
policy, regulation and law (e.g. right of access to papers, brought into
sharp focus by the tragic death of Aaron Swartz a couple of years ago).
In a separate dynamic, technology is being used to manage these changes,
which are themselves given impetus by the alignment of technology with
managerial methods (Key Performance Indicators, etc), and with the
business models of financialisation, privatisation and precarious
employment.
I don't think we will get to the bottom of these matters, still less
change them, without engaging with the processes in a political way,
however good our analysis of technology per se may be.
Now I'll go off to check out Sci-Hub, ... or maybe I'll wait until I
leave the office and get home.
Dai
________________________________________
From: Fis [fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] on behalf of Loet Leydesdorff
[l...@leydesdorff.net]
Sent: 27 September 2016 08:27
To: 'Moisés André Nisenbaum'; 'Mark Johnson'; 'fis'
Subject: Re: [Fis] Scientific Communication and Publishing
Dear Mark, Moises, and colleagues,
I agree that this is a very beautiful piece of work. The video is impressive.
My comment would focus on what it is that constructs reality "by language" (p. 2). I
agree with the remark about the risk of a linguistic fallacy; but how is the domain of
counterfactual expectations constructed? The answer in the paper tends towards a sociological
explanation: "status" for which one competes in a new political economy. However, it
seems to me that the selection mechanism has to be specified. Can this be external to the
communication? How is the paradigmatic/epistemic closure and quality control brought about by the
communication? How is a symbolic layer shaped and coded?
One cannot reverse the reasoning: the editorial boards follow standards that
they perceive as relevant and can reproduce. The standards are not a convention
of the board since one would not easily agree. Reversing the reasoning would
bring us back to interests and thus to a kind of neo-marxism a la the sociology
of scientific knowledge (SSK). In actor-network theory (ANT) the emergence of
standards happens historically/evolutionarily, but is not explained.
I don't have answers on my side. But perhaps, the strength of anticipation and
the role of models needs to be explored. Models can be entertained and enable
us to reconstruct a knowledge-based reality.
Best,
Loet
Loet Leydesdorff
Professor, University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)
l...@leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/
Associate Faculty, SPRU, University of Sussex;
Guest Professor Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, ISTIC, Beijing;
Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of London;
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en
-----Original Message-----
From: Fis [mailto:fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Moisés André
Nisenbaum
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2016 1:45 AM
To: Mark Johnson
Cc: fis
Subject: Re: [Fis] Scientific Communication and Publishing
Dear Mark.
Thank you for the excelent video and article. It is very important to discuss
this and, if you agree, I will use your video with my students (can you send me
the transcription?).
No doubt we are in a changing world and we have to fight against abusive
processes, like publication industry.
In Rafael's article, the question “what is a scientific journal in the digital age?” I
understand that we must think outside the box. I think it would be great if some group
invent a kind of "Uber" of scientific production. Something that connect
directly authors and readers at feasible rates. arXiv does this connection in some way,
but it is not universal. E-science is also a good initiative.
Related to this discussion, UNESCO will do an event on Wednesday
(sep/28th) at Museu do Amanhã (Rio de Janeiro) called International Day for
Universal Access to Information (http://en.unesco.org/iduai2016).
But the fact is: we are human and the worry about "reputation" is the real
reason of today's organization of scientific communication (about this, this book chapter
is very good: VAN RAAN, Anthony FJ. The interdisciplinary nature of science: theoretical
framework and bibliometric-empirical approach. Practising interdisciplinarity, p.
66-78, 2000.)
Kind regards,
Moisés
2016-09-26 4:55 GMT-03:00 Mark Johnson <johnsonm...@gmail.com>:
Dear FIS Colleagues,
To kick-start the discussion on scientific publishing, I have prepared
a short (hopefully provocative) video. It can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bh3vqM98-U
(if anyone's interested, the software I used for producing it is
called 'Videoscribe')
I have also produced a paper which is attached.
I hope you find these interesting and stimulating!
Best wishes,
Mark
--
Dr. Mark William Johnson
Institute of Learning and Teaching
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
University of Liverpool
Phone: 07786 064505
Email: johnsonm...@gmail.com
Blog: http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.com
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Moisés André Nisenbaum
Doutorando IBICT/UFRJ. Professor. Msc.
Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro - IFRJ Campus Rio de Janeiro
moises.nisenb...@ifrj.edu.br
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The University of Bolton
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