#2 Taking the strain on publishing

Welcome to the Mechanics of Research update #2. Here we discuss all things research, writing, and getting the project completed. Completion beats perfection.

Take the Strain

Today’s update is on academic articles. We’re drowning in them.

There were 2.82million articles indexed in 2022. There were 1.92million articles indexed in 2016. There has not been a similar proportional increase in the number of PhDs or researchers during this time.

It’s not only that there’s more articles - they’re also more difficult to read and harder to find. They’re also being retracted in increasing numbers, paper mills churn out fake articles, and some papers continue to receive citations after they’ve been retracted.

Keeping up with the reading, understanding the content, and avoiding dodgy work makes it something of a challenge for all of us (and this is before AI has really taken hold on the writing, reviewing, and editing of papers).

In Mark A. Hanson, Pablo Gómez Barreiro, Paolo Crosetto, Dan Brockington; The strain on scientific publishing. Quantitative Science Studies 2024; 5 (4): 823–843. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00327 they set out how researcher players are contributing to the publishing strain:

-Publishers want to publish as many journals as possible: large numbers bolsters prestige and also the number of subscriptions being sold. Increasing Gold Access articles creates additional income

-Funders such as grant agencies and universities expect a certain number of outputs and judge value for money, to some degree, on the quantity of works being proposed in applications and as a key performance indicator.

-Researchers: publications are used as a measure of success and the ‘publish or perish’ mantra drives quantity. Promotions, tenure, and citations are all related to the quantity of papers published.

This has with certain publishers seen a rise in the Special Issue journal - a Special Issue-ization. These are often guest edited and have been subject to some criticism for lacking a robust peer review with normal editorial duties being replaced by the ‘guest editor’. Some special issues are excellent and offer a chance to pull together experts and the latest research on a specific problem - it means the entire edition of the journal can advance a topic or begin to explore new areas. However - if the editor simply recruits colleagues or associates to write on their pet project the potential issues are glaring. The special issues also tend to have reduced ‘turnaround’ times from submission to publication. Perhaps the guest editors have access to reviewers aligned with the issue - or perhaps the standards are lower and articles are given less scrutiny. For the publishers the potential for growth and revenue are clear.

An increase by almost a million articles being published in the last 6 years or so is staggering. The cost [mental, physical, financial, time] of writing, reviewing, editing, purchasing, storing, searching is vast - in addition to the article processing charges, cost-per-views, subscriptions, and environmental costs of hosting all of this information.

What to do?

-We’re all part of this system. We can choose to some degree to navigate it more carefully and to resist urges to produce articles for the sake of it.

-Quality. I started this letter with ‘completion beats perfection’ - and it does. We need to complete good work and get it published. This is isn’t the same as producing lots of low quality or inconsequential work. One study claims that 50% of articles are only ever read by the author, reviewer, and editor.

-Impact: What impact is our work making on the research community, our field, communities, policy, culture, and so on? If the impact isn’t there and is unlikely to materialise think carefully if it needs to be published? OR could the study be framed in a way that is is read and becomes an agent for bringing about change.

-Developing a research specialism and body of work: I know of many scholars who have not built up a core body of research expertise. They flit from popular projects to fashionable buzz words and the latest trends - avoid this. Think about your longer term trajectory and how you are developing a portfolio of papers and knowledge.

-Journals: Not all journals and publishers are equal. Substantial article processing charges and expensive subscriptions are major barriers both to the authors and readers.

-Compete on quality, impact, and innovate research - not meaningless lists of papers and poor quality articles.

Thanks for subscribing - you can read earlier editions here https://iain-jackson.beehiiv.com/ 

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Hope you’ve enjoyed the newsletter - and I’ll write again in a couple of weeks.