Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

On the value of academic publishing.

To you, or...?

I can articulate the value to society more generally, as well. Would you like to hear it?

Go for it.

New technologies, cures for diseases, better policy, & understanding of the world in general come about through academic research. Academic research is facilitated by sharing of trustworthy, high signal to noise ratio knowledge among academics.

I am not questioning the value of scientific research. I am questioning the value of a system that limits access to publicly-funded research to a tiny few, incentivizes positive results + overstated conclusions, & appears to be producing less notable work at an increasing cost

I question the value of a great many terrible journals which exist solely to publish mediocre work, further fields that lack even superficial rigor, & generate citations to boost careers that may or may not even be pointed in the general direction of real questions

There are indeed some very mediocre things out there. There are also many very good things published and lots of good people who are doing interesting work that makes the world better.