• Jocker@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    If we build a decentralized system for paper publishing, like lemmy based on activitypub… will it work?

    • Allero
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      6 months ago

      Probably won’t take off because scientists need reputable journals and not some random fediverse publishers.

      Is it fucked up? Absolutely. But something else needs to be changed before this would be possible.

      Also, why not ditch the concept of a “publisher” to begin with? Why not have a national or international article index, graded by the article level? It’s not that we live in a paper era, and for those who still need it, we can always print.

      • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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        6 months ago

        Institutions could easily form their own journals. National organizations that provide grants could also require you to publish in their journal. Universities can run their own journals. These sorts of entities already exist and provide article access for free, publishing in them would just need to be normalized.

        These are just a few options without researchers organizing anything for themselves.

        • Allero
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          6 months ago

          Fair enough, though why should journals even be a thing? Why not just university publishing papers online as soon as they are accepted?

          Currently we already have this thing with some journals publishing online the articles that are meant for future issues, which fucks up citations quite a bit. Why not just ditch the entire “journal” format altogether?

          • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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            6 months ago

            I was kind of thinking of that with the institutional journal bit. It doesn’t need to be a traditional journal, the only things important to me are:

            1. peer review (skip #2)

            2. open access

            3. professional editors to help improve phrasing, spelling, flow, etc.

            4. DOI link or similar unique identifier

            I’m totally down to ditch the traditional journal format otherwise. It was just a quick comment not meant to go in-depth, but point out that we already have public institutions that can host publications.

      • philpo@feddit.de
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        6 months ago

        Well, we could assign the reviewers more “significance” here. We could give them points and if they “upvote” a paper it gives the paper a bit more visibility/reputation. If the reviewer has actually reviewed the paper it gives the paper more points.

        How much a reviewer is able to “spend” could be based on the reputation of the institution, their own papers in the same field and the points they get for their reviews by other users.

        Just a raw idea,but it seems possible, indeed.

        • Allero
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          6 months ago

          Interesting concept for an open collaboration!

          Should also address the misuse of the points when some large researcher doesn’t care to peer review and may give power to someone else, or hacking leading to spending of points, or whatever threats there can be

      • Jocker@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Exactly, a decentralized platform would only make an index and universities or institutions can maintain their own instances

        • Allero
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          6 months ago

          This I generally approve, if availability is good enough