this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Science Memes

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[–] ComradeWeebelo@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Publish or perish.

Academic publishing is in a very weird place and is very, very political. Its true that authors have to pay to have their papers published in most journals or conferences after they've been accepted, but like all things academic, this is highly dependent on the field. Some universities will reimburse professors publishing costs, others need to pay out of pocket or with grant/public funding.

While its true that there are open-access journals and conferences without such costs, I would wager that most well known researchers would avoid such avenues of publication due to prestige. The larger journals and conferences have review boards where the top scientists in the world sit on them. As a potential published author with such an outlet, its a great honor to even be considered. Most researchers don't want to take the risk of going with a less prestigious outlet if it will run the risk of smearing their image or damaging their ability to publish in better outlets in the future.

Source: Was a Doctoral candidate that ran the whole ringer besides the dissertation.

[–] spiffmeister@aussie.zone 24 points 1 year ago

While its true that there are open-access journals and conferences without such costs

To publish open access normally costs upwards of $3k USD as well. There's practically no point in the publishing chain where academics aren't getting screwed.

Let's also not forget that you have to review other people's papers for the journal for free.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

Cake or death?

[–] Twelve20two@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And all those reasons are why I don't want to go into academia. It really feels like a the competition/politics/pissing contest of who you know is more valued than people coming together to push the boundaries of what we know and how we understand things. What are the upsides?

[–] ComradeWeebelo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Besides myself, I have two other friends that also stopped at a Masters or dropped down to a Masters for similar reasons.

[–] Twelve20two@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

I'll try to keep it in mind that masters is more than enough (if I ever want to go back in the first place)