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Re: [tlug] Journals, Authors and 'Free Peer Review'




On Tuesday, September 25, 2018 10:15 PM, Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:
Perhaps you will find it will make you more productive since you know very well that not everything you are competent to write about and not even everything of interest to others will stand a chance to be published in
a peer reviewed journal.

With such a high threshold, many scholars put off writing articles that they could have written since they know it would likely not make it into a peer
reviewed journal, so they don't write it, which is unfortunate.


Your reason here for a pre-print server is a separate discussion. A valid point, but separate from what I've been saying so far.

You're pointing out pre-print server as being some kind of milestone. That publishers set a threshold that is "high".

That is possible but different people will have different milestones in mind. A paper in a pre-print server is one but "a vacation with family" could be another. Or a "nice dinner" after finishing one more figure. Anything can serve as one's motivator.


In an email exchange I had with Don Knuth, even he lamented
that "good papers get rejected because they aren't trendy".


Sure. And some journals capitalize on this by not favouring "trendy" work. And predatory journals took this even further and take anything at all.


Had we not worried so much about whether what material we could produce might make it into a peer review journal, we would likely have produced tens of articles by now which could have been published on ArXiv.org and some of those would certainly have been accepted for publishing in peer reviewed
journals.


Hmmmm, sure. It's good you can see what you think you've done wrong. I'm still not convinced that it's a "one size fits all".

Personally, I still would rather take my vacation than use ArXiv as my motivator. But that's just me...


At the end of the day, it is the work you do and the quality of that work which will determine how people judge your abilities, not the name dropping
of magazines and publishers in your CV.


Not every human resources department or grant review committee agrees with you.

Some think like you and would be happy to hire you / offer you a grant. Those that don't think like you probably won't look at you favourably.

That's ok... There's a lot of room in this world for a wide range of opinions.

Returning to ArXiv, I think opinions are still a bit divided for me. But if it helps in motivating you, then great!

Ray



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