When publications were introduced to the block grant allocations there was a rapid increase in the volume of publications produced - however, the quality of those publications was low - in other words the quantity went up but the quality didn't. ERA introduced a quality component to the block grant allocation, albeit a modest allocation, which saw an increase in journal article output (compared with conferences and book) and an increase in articles in 'A*' and 'A' ranked journals.
So it seems that publication behaviour changes as the policy and incentives change. It will be interesting to see what impact this newest change has on publication behaviour. Should universities tell their academics to stop publishing? Well, probably not - there are many good reasons to keep publishing, not least of which is that researchers tend to like publishing and it is still a powerful way to disseminate knew knowledge. Besides this though there are a number of other reasons - promotions and recruitments are often influenced by publication record, grant success and university rankings are also linked to publication output.
So maybe don't stop publishing just yet. But watch this space to see what happens to publishing across Australian universities.
We are in a period where the era of the journal is fading. Nobody goes down to the library every month to read journals -- they search for articles. The only reason for journals is the peer review process and their status believed in by administrators.
ReplyDeleteOnce the peer review process is decoupled from the journal, they will be defunct, as relevant as hand lettered manuscripts.
The transition from manuscripts to printed material took about 200 years. I would expect this transition to be much shorter.
Assoc Prof John Lamp
lamp.infosys.deakin.edu.au
Well put John. I agree with you entirely. Print versions of journals with pivotal articles will become collectable - collect them up now and in years to come they'll be worth a fortune on eBay.
DeleteWhile journals may not survive the evolution of publishing models I can't help but think of the comments of one of my PhD supervisors ' if you ain't published it, you ain't done it!'. Dissemination is, and must remain, a critical part of the research process
ReplyDeleteNeale Yates
I like that quote Neale: ' if you ain't published it, you ain't done it!'.
DeleteI agree and think that dissemination will remain a critical part of research - whether it remains a 'valued' part of research is another question.