"As-you-go" instead of "after-the-fact": A network approach to scholarly communication and evaluation

Abstract

Scholarly research faces threats to its sustainability on multiple domains (access, 12 incentives, reproducibility, inclusivity). We argue that "after-the-fact" research papers do not 13 help and actually cause some of these threats because the chronology of the research cycle is 14 lost in a research paper. We propose to give up the academic paper and propose a digitally 15 native "as-you-go" alternative. In this design, modules of research outputs are communicated 16 along the way and are directly linked to each other to form a network of outputs that can 17 facilitate research evaluation. This embeds chronology in the design of scholarly 18 communication and facilitates recognition of more diverse outputs that go beyond the paper 19 (e.g., code, materials). Moreover, using network analysis to investigate the relations between 20 linked outputs could help align evaluation tools with evaluation questions. We illustrate how 21 such a modular "as-you-go" design of scholarly communication could be structured and how 22 network indicators could be computed to assist in the evaluation process, with specific use 23 cases for funders, universities, and individual researchers. 24 25

Manifesto for the future of work and organizational psychology

“…In practice, this means that we should not only focus on open access publications on platforms that are not dominated by profit-driven publishing companies (including open access journals which are still commercially driven by having authors paying to publish their work), but also the need to reform the performance management systems to allow this. Moreover, we need to design alternative ways to better communicate our work and achievements within our communities, for instance, through more radical, democratized peer-to-peer networks (see e.g., Hartgerink & van Zelst, 2018 for an example of how this can be achieved). Our choice to submit this manifesto to a journal which is not open access and which is owned by a commercial publisher has been twofold: first, EJWOP, as the main outlet of EAWOP, has a great reputation within the academic community including WOP-scholars and practitioners.…”

Comfortably Numb? Work and Organizational Psychology Researchers’ Satisfaction with the Publication System and a Proposal for Radical Change

“…We propose that the only way to mitigate the negative consequences of publishing times is by providing reviews after, and not before, publication. Whereas such a practice is inconceivable within the journal-based publication system, it is in line with a recently proposed modular publication system [1]. This modular publication system was developed to offer a holistic alternative for the journal-based publication system, such that it does not only focus on improving the problems with publishing times, but also addresses several other problems of the journal-based publication system.…”

“…The emergent network provides insight into the knowledge base of the area of interest, and the synchronicity of the modules keeps track of the origin and provenance of each module and network. Via peer-to-peer protocols such a modular publication system can be decentralized [1,35], which allows researchers to self-publish and retain ownership of their research while maintaining the 'open by design' principle that creates access for all.…”

“…In a modular publication system, those tasks partly fall away, and partly are distributed more evenly among all researchers. Finally, the fourth argument is the evaluation accuracy argument, as administrators currently rely on problematic proxies like quantity of publications and the JIF to evaluate researchers, but can rely on more accurate, varied, and personalized metrics to assess the quantity and quality of researchers contributions within a modular publication system [1]. Notwithstanding this liability and recommendations, we however should also point out that not all administrators and tenured faculty are likely to be comfortably numb, as is evidenced by the fact that there are administrators and tenured faculty among the frontrunners of the push for changing the journal-based publication system.…”

“…Because we consider prolonged publishing times to be a problem that is inherent to the journal-based publication system, we propose a radically different, holistic solution. For this, we build on the recently advanced idea of a digital "research-as-you-go" publication system [1] to depict how we can move beyond the journal-based publication system. Specifically, we propose a modular system [13] that enables researchers to communicate their contributions immediately when they are ready.…”