The traditional prestige economy of archaeology is preventing its emergence as an open science – ArcheoThoughts

"Pushed to its extreme, the logic of this prestige economy of knowledge leads to long-term data protectionism.  There are those who defend this system. Some defend it out of fear, however unconscious and buried. Some are the enlightened despots, the ones who wield their considerable power responsibly, for the good of the discipline. But such enlightened despotism is not to be counted on, and a scholarly system should not be built on it. For that to change, the structure of the discipline, including its publishing and hiring practices must change. This data protectionist prestige economy costs us a great deal of scholarly vitality and innovation, and its only detectable (and highly questionable) benefit is the maintenance of an established power structure. The trade-off is not worth it, to say the least."