Revolt of the Scholars
by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
http://www.realsci.com/
Scindexกs Instant Publishing Service is about empowerment. The price of scholarly, peerreviewed journals has skyrocketed in the last few years, often way out of the limited means of libraries, universities, individual scientists and scholars. A กscholarly divideก has opened between the haves (academic institutions with rich endowments and wellheeled corporations) and the haves not (all the others). Paradoxically, access to authoritative and authenticated knowledge has declined as the number of professional journals has proliferated. This is not to mention the long (and often crucial) delays in publishing research results and the shoddy work of many underpaid and overworked peer reviewers.
The Internet was suppose to change all that. Originally, a computer network for the exchange of (restricted and open) research results among scientists and academics in participating institutions it was supposed to provide instant publishing, instant access and instant gratification. It has delivered only partially. Preprints of academic papers are often placed online by their eager authors and subjected to peer scrutiny. But this haphazard publishing cottage industry did nothing to dethrone the print incumbents and their avaricious pricing.
The major missing element is, of course, respectability. But there are others. No agreed upon content or knowledge classification method has emerged. Some web sites (such as Suite101) use the Dewey decimal system. Others invented and implemented systems of their making. Additionally, one click publishing technology (such as Webseedกs or Bloggerกs) came to be identified strictly to nonscholarly material: personal reminiscences, correspondence, articles and news.
Enter Scindex and its Academic Resource Channel. Established by academics and software experts from Bulgaria, it epitomizes the tearing down of geographical barriers heralded by the Internet. But it does much more than that. Scindex is a whole, selfcontained, standalone, instant selfpublishing and selfassembly system. Selfpublishing systems do exist (for instance, Purdue Universityกs) but they incorporate only certain components. Scindex covers the whole range.
Having (freely) registered as a member, a scientist or a scholar can publish their papers, essays, research results, articles and comments online. They have to submit an abstract and use Sciendexกs classification (กcallก) numbers and science descriptors, arranged in a massive directory available in the ‘realSci Locatorก. The Locator can be also downloaded and used offline and its is surprisingly userfriendly. The submission process itself is totally automated and very short.
The system includes a long series of thematic journals. These journals selfassemble, in accordance with the call numbers selected by the submitters. An article submitted with certain call numbers will automatically be included in the relevant journals.
The fly in the ointment is the absence of peer review. As the system moves from beta to commercialization, Scindex intends to address this issue by introducing a system of incentives and inducements. Reviewers will be granted กcredit pointsก to be applied against the (paid) publication of their own papers, for instance.
Scindex is the model of things to come. Publishing becomes more and more automated and knowledgeorientated. Peer reviewed papers become more outlandishly expensive and irrelevant. Scientists and scholars are getting impatient and rebellious. The confluence of these three trends spells at the least the creation of a web based universe of parallel and alternative scholarly publishing.
About The Author
Sam Vaknin is the author of กMalignant Self Love Narcissism Revisitedก and กAfter the Rain How the West Lost the Eastก. He is a columnist in กCentral Europe Reviewก, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.
His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com
This article was posted on February 2, 2002
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
