Stalwart journal publisher Springer Nature is asking researchers to buy $49 AI-generated "Media Kits" to summarize and promote their work.

Additional context for non-scientists:

Nature is the highest-cited (extremely high impact factor, a.k.a. how many times the average paper in a journal gets cited) basic sciences journal, and is one of the most-cited only behind some clinical study-specific journals like Lancet. Nature is also widely regarded as one of the (if not the) most elite journals to publish in. Lots of scientists’ careers hinge on them publishing papers in journals like Nature or Science.

Springer Nature also operates a lot of Nature-branded journals (like Nature Genetics, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Protocols) that are commonly regarded as some of the best field-specific journals. Not to mention Scientific American, a highly rigorous science news source aimed at the general public.

  • Snot FlickermanEnglish
    14·
    23 hours ago

    We need to stop using this 18th century model fucking yesterday.

    Whether people want to admit it or not, things like sci-hub are the future.

    • pepperprepper@lemmy.world
      1·
      20 hours ago

      Is there any sort of system to peer review papers or just making current papers more accessible? I love the idea of that, but we still need to make sure research is being double checked before making claims and being able to promote it as research.

      • Snot FlickermanEnglish
        2·
        19 hours ago

        I would think we would just copy Linus Torvald’s “Bazaar” style that he uses for the Linux Kernel Mailing List for peer-review.

        The current model is closer to the Cathedral model.

  • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
    17·
    1 day ago

    Isn’t it the publisher’s job to promote their work, if it’s being published by them in the first place, or am I missing something here? What’s the point of any of it? What are the publishers even doing at this point?

    • zlatiah@lemmy.worldOP
      16·
      1 day ago

      Isn’t it the publisher’s job to promote their work

      You are correct

      What are the publishers even doing at this point?

      I… honestly don’t know. But with how the academic bureaucracy works, a lot of people will be stuck in the system for the time being as it’s extremely difficult to have a grass-roots movement to move away from Springer Nature; academia is hard enough and there’s no way junior academics would willingly sabotage their careers that way… So I have no clue.