The industry’s business model has higher profit margins than any other industry in history.
The long and biased peer review process
Problems are prevalent at the very core of the scientific publishing industry, starting with the long and biased peer review process. Manuscripts are evaluated by field experts, revised and improved by the authors, and then finally accepted for publication. This is the process through which grants are allocated, papers published, academics promoted, and Nobel prizes won. So, the problem is clear, since reviewers are competing for the same recognition and resources, peer reviewing is inevitably going to suffer from bias.
It’s no secret that the world of academia also suffers from a diversity problem. While there have been several recent initiatives geared towards addressing diversity issues in the industry, unfortunately, these efforts have yet to be successful.
As well as suffering from bias, peer reviewing can also be quite a protracted and drawn out process. Despite technological advancements, the time from submission to publication is dictated by a highly convoluted process. Once a journal receives a manuscript, an editor needs to screen the work and assign it to peer reviewers. Then, if the transition process between authors, editors and reviewers is successful, the manuscript is marked for publication. However, this does not mean that the paper is immediately published, it only means it is earmarked for release in the print edition as space becomes availabl.
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