RE: [xmca] Do academic journals exist?

Eugene,

I think you make an incredibly salient observation. If connectionism is
right, the building of our knowledge systems is non-linear and dynamic.
One of the troubles we have had has been that historically publishing
has been monolithic and hierarchical. The whole idea that an article
must be good/important because it is published in a specific journal
really, when you think about, seems kind of absurd. Brilliant,
innovative ideas can be anywhere, and they often are. So in many ways
the journals themselves controlled how we viewed knowledge and the
accumulation of knowledge, acted as gatekeepers, in much the same way
say The New York Times or Washington Post acted as gatekeepers for our
political knowledge.

The internet seems to be changing all that on a number of levels.
Usually when I am interested in a topic I will go to Google Scholar and
type in words or phrases and surf around. Within the course of a day I
can usually find what I am looking for - but the actual journal doesn't
enter in to the search at all, other than it was the vehicle leading to
the publication. I think as we continue to evolve it will be hyperlinks
within articles that lead us to other articles and things to read,
moving even beyond Google Scholar.

It strikes me as odd that our assessments then are not in any way
keeping up with our technology - as a matter of fact it is holding us
back. To succeed in academia we must cling to old media, even as it
becomes less and less relevant and connected to the world that we live
in.

Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
On Behalf Of Eugene Matusov
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 10:47 AM
To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
Cc: 'Bob Hampel'; 'UD-PIG'
Subject: [xmca] Do academic journals exist?

Dear xmca folks-

Our discussion of "publish and/or perish" and the ISI "web of knowledge"
makes me think about the nature of academic journals and my personal
professional practice of using them. As a reader of academic journals, I
must admit that for me, academic journals do not exist. I rarely read
academic journals (and it's getting worse). Rather I hunt for particular
articles of my interests using either recommendations coming from other
articles (regardless journals where they publish) via their reference
lists
OR databases such as ERIC and PsyINFO OR recommendations by my
colleagues
like you. I've noticed that my reading practice becomes more and more
like
that after our university library vastly increase journals available
electronically on-line. For me, as a reader, now, "journal" becomes an
accidental assembly of unrelated papers.

However, as a writer, I still treat journal as a particular institution
with
a particular direction, particular editor, possible body of reviewers,
particular "readership". If my experiences are not unique, I wonder if
the
later is my myth by now, forgetting that I, myself, do not belong to any
journal readership anymore.

Are your reader and writer experiences similar with regard to academic
journals? I wonder what consequences and new opportunities these changes
bring to the academia.

What do you think?

Eugene

---------------------

Eugene Matusov, Ph.D.

Professor of Education

School of Education

University of Delaware

Newark, DE 19716, USA

email: ematusov@udel.edu

fax: 1-(302)-831-4110

website: http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu

publications: http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm

---------------------

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Received on Tue Jul 8 09:01 PDT 2008