Scholars Embrace New Publication Modes in Theory More Than in Practice, Study Finds, from the Chronicle

The report concludes that “the UC faculty largely conform to conventional behavior regarding scholarly communication, such as publishing in traditional venues, but widely express a need for change in the current systems of scholarly communication.”

Well, I can’t say that’s a huge surprise to me. Everyone recognizes that the existing scholarly communication system is dysfunctional, but promotion and tenure processes reward operating within it, and either actively discourage or at a minimum do not reward operating outside of it. I’ve thought for a long time that addressing this issue will require a radical revision to the reward system in academia.