Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings

This paper uses my experience as an academic journal editor in order to reflect upon the social arrangement that brings academics, universities, states and knowledge capitalist organizations together to produce the contemporary academic journal and access paywalls. After some consideration of the hi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Martin Parker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group 2013-10-01
Series:tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/516
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849243224427724800
author Martin Parker
author_facet Martin Parker
author_sort Martin Parker
collection DOAJ
description This paper uses my experience as an academic journal editor in order to reflect upon the social arrangement that brings academics, universities, states and knowledge capitalist organizations together to produce the contemporary academic journal and access paywalls. After some consideration of the history of publishing, I analyse the market for articles like this one, and considerthe consequences of the ranking and monetization of journals, papers andcitations by different agents. As I do this, I insert various biographical reflections on the relationship between ‘editing’ and being ‘edited’. The overall aim of the paper is to suggest that this set-up actually has some verynegative consequences for taxpayers, academics and students. It encourages the overproduction of academic output because it turns it into a commodity which is traded, whilst simultaneously tending to discourage forms of knowledge production that fail to fit into the boxes which have already been establishedfor them, whether in terms of content or style. I conclude with some thoughts on open access journals, and their limits.
format Article
id doaj-art-5f2e945927aa4fd9ab68f64f705b371f
institution Kabale University
issn 1726-670X
language English
publishDate 2013-10-01
publisher Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
record_format Article
series tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
spelling doaj-art-5f2e945927aa4fd9ab68f64f705b371f2025-08-20T03:59:32ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X2013-10-0111210.31269/triplec.v11i2.516516Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the StringsMartin ParkerThis paper uses my experience as an academic journal editor in order to reflect upon the social arrangement that brings academics, universities, states and knowledge capitalist organizations together to produce the contemporary academic journal and access paywalls. After some consideration of the history of publishing, I analyse the market for articles like this one, and considerthe consequences of the ranking and monetization of journals, papers andcitations by different agents. As I do this, I insert various biographical reflections on the relationship between ‘editing’ and being ‘edited’. The overall aim of the paper is to suggest that this set-up actually has some verynegative consequences for taxpayers, academics and students. It encourages the overproduction of academic output because it turns it into a commodity which is traded, whilst simultaneously tending to discourage forms of knowledge production that fail to fit into the boxes which have already been establishedfor them, whether in terms of content or style. I conclude with some thoughts on open access journals, and their limits.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/516EditingJournalsPublishingUniversitiesRankingsOpen Access.
spellingShingle Martin Parker
Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings
tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Editing
Journals
Publishing
Universities
Rankings
Open Access.
title Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings
title_full Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings
title_fullStr Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings
title_full_unstemmed Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings
title_short Becoming Editor: Or, Pinocchio finally notices the Strings
title_sort becoming editor or pinocchio finally notices the strings
topic Editing
Journals
Publishing
Universities
Rankings
Open Access.
url https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/516
work_keys_str_mv AT martinparker becomingeditororpinocchiofinallynoticesthestrings