Darrell Fuhriman wrote:
...
> I'm not sure what the blocks are behind this – one thing that I suspect
> is that unfamiliarity with technology may play a role. But that was an
> excuse when it was only technology-comfortable physics, mathematics, and
> computer science journals making the transition, but honestly the time
> for that excuse has expired.
True.
> Maybe it's the fear of (lack of) tenure,
> but at the end of the day, I think that's a pretty sorry excuse, given
> the way the rest of academia is clearly moving.
Here's where we part company a bit.
Fear of being denied promotion and tenure is hardly a "pretty sorry excuse." That disciplinary mechanism is responsible for a whole lot of dysfunctions in academia. WRT to publications, it's quite common that Dean's and such look at journal impact ratings. It's a rather large leap of faith to publish in the absence of those "objective" measures of "high quality publishing outlets" and you can't leave it to individual junior faculty to negotiate this.
Any move to open publishing has to address this issue head on, rather than dismiss it. It's a BIG issue.
Just as a simple example, I have the technical expertise to have published my book without the help of Routledge. To have done so, I think, would have been career suicide.
...
Bruce
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