James
Thank you -- this is very
valuable indeed, and will guide my future practice.
As we know, the road from
good, even research-based, advice to widespread, let alone universal, practice
is long, bumpy, and often not completed. With respect to theses; and also with
respect to the (far more numerous) journal articles; how would we support this
shift to better practice? If I were still editing a journal, I would make such
a format a requirement henceforward. Is there a confederation of editors to
work with?
Publishers might be the
obvious route. But they are sometimes reluctant to interfere in the autonomy
of editors and editorial practice - academic freedom, of course, includes the
inviolable freedom to continue to do things in ways which are known to be
suboptimal. There is another reason why publishers might not like the approach
you advocate. Essentially you advocate putting a summary of the article into
the abstract. A growing part of publishers’ income derives from sales of
individual papers. They might be reluctant to, from their perspective, require
authors to give away the content in the abstract. Again, commercial and
academic considerations collide.
Any
thoughts?
Very best
wishes
David
++++++++++++++++++++
David Baume
PhD FSEDA FHEA
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