Rogue

In the attached is highlighted a story about a Nobel laureate (and colleagues) that has bypassed the academic journals and their peer review process and gone straight to publication on the internet.

Academics are aghast because the authors have sidestepped all the usual peer review processes.

But the paper had also been submitted for publication where it will be reviewed.

Since the journals insist on owning copyright for the articles they publish, I see an issue ahead.

What value copyright when the material is already blatantly available on the web?

What happens if they refuse to publish the article?

Will they also refuse to publish any articles that reference this unreviewed article?

And what of peer review?

If all academics just published straight to the web the odds of crap and fraud being published and cited must go up.

The answer of course is to wrest control of publishing off the private enterprises that make profit by charging access to the very same institutions that generate the free content for them.

And this will happen.

It is happening.

The internet is a wonderful thing.