In the Digital Age, Science Publishing Needs an Upgrade

" ... There are two problematic aspects of the traditional science publishing process. The first is the simple idea that journal editors should decide what to publish. It seems logical enough that an appointed editor (theoretically an expert in the field) should decide what to accept for publication in a journal, but in science it is actually a dangerous practice. A magazine like Rolling Stone, which talks about music and movies, can be picky because people specifically buy it because of its role as a tastemaker and trend spotter. Science is different. Many journals check not only whether they think the work is well executed, but also if they think it is interesting or important. Whether it is interesting is necessarily a subjective judgment based on the editor's own (sometimes quirky or narrow) interests, and it is almost impossible to know immediately how important a new discovery really is. What if (and it is not an infrequent thing) an obscure area of science or work on an obscure organism wasn't published because an editor thought it was too boring for readers? As one example, an obscure flower, the Madagascar periwinkle, became the source for a major chemotherapy drug called Vincristine. What if an editor decided that the readership isn't interested in strange African flowers? Furthermore, even the broadest journals don't employ hundreds of specialist editors. Usually no more than a few dozen people, often many years from the inside of a laboratory, are asked to do the impossible: predict the future. Predict whether a manuscript that was just mailed to them is going to be of broad interest and become scientifically important. The simple truth is that they can't possibly know, and trying to predict such impact is an exercise in futility. More important, there is no reason for them to try, because the world should not be cheated of a shred of a new insight, even if seemingly tiny. Journals and editors should simply determine whether something is legitimate science, and if so, it should hit the website immediately, serving the interests of science, scientists and the public at large. Journals should disseminate all the science they can and let the scientific community openly debate and discuss it — let them sort the wheat from the chaff over time. There is also a second problem with the traditional publishing process: subscriptions. Most scientific journals in biology and medicine sit behind a paywall: you need to pay to see their content. We accept that in Rolling Stone, because taxpayers most likely didn't fund Taylor Swift's latest efforts. In science, this is unacceptable. The research is often paid for by the government and not-for-profit groups (the U.S. government alone spent $35 billion in 2013 on science and medical research). Scientific journals delay and block publication because of their archaic editorial practices, only to prevent the public from having access unless they pay for a subscription. The taxpayers who funded this work should be able to see the output, and all of it, not just a few hand-picked selections ..."