All of this publishing has to appear somewhere, so there are now thousands of academic journals. The subscription fees for these journals (particularly those in medicine and the sciences) are a great financial burden on academic libraries. Amidst this enormous profusion of academic publishing—and the stress that it places on everyone involved—it is inevitable that sub-par research gets through the peer-review process and into the pages of academic journals. Sometimes even fraud makes it through. Because of the requirement to publish, academics (even honest ones) sometimes publish work that they themselves question the significance of. Of course, questioning the significance of one’s work is a condition endemic to graduate school.
and the bigger question is --- who will read them? only a small ... tiny ... community of scholars. try explaining your published works to friends and family (non-academics) ... and you will get nothing but baffled looks and nodding as they attempt to understand the complexity and relevance of your work to the contemporary world.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point. Quality is definitely suffering in favor of quantity. More over, as the previous poster noted, the relevance of such work is highly questionable when only read by a handful of scholars with the same academic interest. What's the point of academic research if it lacks the power to influence and transform society?
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with this. The tragic part is that you, as a grad student, have to wade through a sespool of sub-par publications to even get a glimmer of insight into what you're researching.
ReplyDeleteEven as an undergrad I was often shocked by the low quality of papers that managed to get published. It must also be disheartening to publish something you're not completely happy with just to put it on your resume -- so much for 'living a life of the mind.'
More like publish AND perish these days...
ReplyDeleteYup, yup, and yup. What a waste of everyone's time it all is.
ReplyDeleteI don't know...I sort of enjoy reading articles, even if they are sub-par. It just gives an opportunity to criticize accomplished academics in my own writing.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog and am enjoying reading over the 100 reasons (or 1-33 thus far). Too bad mostly grad students and Ph.D.s will be reading this!! We need to spread the word to the little people, the undergrads, asap!!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see "34. Most of Your Research and Published Work Will Be Completely Meaningless."
ReplyDelete@ Anon. "I would love to see #34. Most of Your Research and Published Work Will Be Completely Meaningless."
ReplyDeleteActually, that should have been #1!
Because no industry has competition.
ReplyDeletethe amount of absolute garbage out there is sickening and I often feel embarrassed for many of the people around me publishing the most esoteric junk towards which they feel an immensely overblown sense of pride.
ReplyDeleteOften you will get published because you know someone, but not in very good journals. In one excellent journal, I had to revise my article twice before it was accepted. The reader was excellent.
DeleteSadly, this is very true. However, for one to write well, he/she has to start somewhere. If you want to read high quality articles, then go and find a high quality journal to read from. And it is also true that very few people will get to read your paper, but the important point is that "some" people will. It takes a very long time for most research to bear fruit, but we can't deny the fact that it actually does eventually. Otherwise we wouldn't have all these fancy gadgets and stuff to use in our daily lives. Sorry, I come from an engineering background.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have found this blog. I'm currently an undergraduate and thinking about my future career path. I may rethink some things after having read this. Thank you. :)
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