Publishing
Issues[edit | edit source]
There are several issues with publishing within academia, not just within the linguistic discipline. One such issue is that academic publishing is dependent on commercial publishers who are paid large fees for access to publications, whereas much of the work done researching, writing and reviewing these publications is done by academics at no costs to the publishers, often paid by public funds. At the same time, publishing costs have come down substantially in recent decades.[1] Another issue is the idea within the academic world of "publish or perish," the idea that in order to gain notoriety and funding within the field, one must publish as many papers as possible.
Frequent publication is one of the few powerful methods at scholar's disposal to demonstrate academic talent to peers. Successful publication of research brings attention to scholars and their institutions. This in turn may bring in more funding for the institute and also ensure an individual's progress through their field. Academic institutions and university frequently use the number of publication to an individual's credit as the measure of competency. Administrators are increasingly using this as the criteria during recruitments. Scholars, who publish infrequently or who focus on activities that does not result in publications like instructing undergraduates, may find themselves out of contentions for many teaching positions. It is due to these reasons that there is an immense pressure to publish.[2]
This issue not only affects academics, but students and those looking to read these articles, as well. Many publications are behind a paywall or a subscription services, such that in order to gain access to papers one must either be a student at an institution that has paid for the subscription to the journal the article was published in, or privately subscribe to the journal. Many articles can be purchased outright, but a constant criticism from academics is that they are not paid for their articles (i.e., when one purchases an article from a journal, the author receives no monetary compensation for this purchase).[3]
Along with the issue of publishing is the issue of paper resources that go in to printing the journals themselves, though this issue is not limited to the academic sphere.
Possible solutions[edit | edit source]
- E-books
- reducing the paper materials used on printed materials
- Open access to journals
- gives access to wider audience access to knowledge/research materials
- see also Zenodo, HAL, Gitlab, GitHub, avointiede.fi
- Open publishing companies (e.g. www.langsci-press.org)
- FAIR principles: it should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable
References [1][edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Spronk, S. (2022, November 25). (Inter)disciplinarity, academic infrastructures and accessibility. [PowerPoint slides]. University of Helsinki.
- ↑ Rawat, S., & Meena, S. (2014). Publish or perish: Where are we heading?. Journal of research in medical sciences : the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 19(2), 87–89.
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.com/problem-academic-journals-not-paying-writers-scholars-2021-5?r=US&IR=T
