I have written many a rant on academic publishing (but never published them). As a non-academic, I can write journal articles (and have), I review a lot of journal articles, but I can’t access or read any. To me this means that journals, something that academics are judged by and spend a significant amount of time on, are really an internal exercise rather than one meant to inform the discipline as a whole. All the discussions about getting more practitioners involved in academia are mostly talk, since there are so many barriers in the way to prevent that (ok, bits of my rant are included here). I’m not alone in thinking this either. The point isn’t simply to publish for the sake of publishing, it’s to share. It is for that research to be used, to be useful. Create a platform that includes a magazine (think New Scientist), a website etc. that brings together (very) short and readable excerpts from across journal articles, from across the discipline of business, to be shared with others in academia and also, in particular, practitioners. This platform wouldn’t be just reserved for the “big” academics. It would be open to all students at all levels and be for the community and readers to review so there should be open comments etc that would help continue the thinking of that work. Academics, or practitioners, who want to learn more about a particular study can then access the full journal. And if any you have figured out a way of giving regular folks access to journals, please let me know, as I’d just love to take a poke around.
