Re: [tlug] Open Access Journals

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:05:53 +0800
Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com> wrote:

> While I'm in support of open access, the worrying part is the
> potential for a sub-standard journal to lower the bar and accept more
> papers to increase its income.  Many open access journals would say
> they don't do this but the potential is there.  If the reader pays,
> then maybe they are more inclined to select good papers since their
> revenue comes from people reading it.

I don't think that payment in any form will get you higher quality.
It's easy enough to scam people into buying articles. And the internet
has made it even easier (you can reach more unsuspecting laymans than
ever before). And even with traditional journals, the quality of a lot
of published papers is very very low. In some fields, i have the impression
that 90% of the papers were just published because a poor student was
given a bad project and told to publish a paper out of it or he will fail.
Nothing in there to be used in a future project, no critical analysis
of what has been done (and why it was a bad idea). Just a paper that says
we have done X and it's ZOMG GREAT! to make a certain professor happy.
Some also fail because the researchers fail at understanding the tools
they are using, because they are from outside their field and they dont
care as long as it apperantly works (social sciences and statistics
is a prominent example here). And yet these papers get published. I am
not sure why, but they are there. And i don't think that any change
in publishing system will make this much better or much worse.


			Attila Kinali



-- 
I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in
the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous
even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being
superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.
			-- Sophie Scholl