I am someone with a Ph.D. in a STEM field who has had both a semi-academic research career (at NASA) and an industrial career. There are two things about this situation that I find really shocking:
1. The extent to which the academic mindset is stuck in pre-internet ways of doing things. The whole process of advancing a career by publishing papers reviewed by a very small number of "peers" was established in the seventeenth century and was an efficient way of filtering out good ideas from bad ones given the technological constraints of the day. Needless to say, many of those constraints no longer apply. There is nothing wrong with peer review. Indeed, it is essential. But, in the age of the internet, there is a lot wrong with peer review conducted by a small handful of people selected by a journal publisher. The whole idea of a journal should be obsolete.
2. The extent to which traditional academia has managed to maintain its privileged role in society despite contributing less and less actual value. A tenured professor is still a highly respected position despite the fact that the actual job of being a professor has a lot more to do with politics than it does with academics. Teaching, which is supposed to be one of the core businesses of the academy, is actively frowned upon. Nothing destroys an academic career faster than putting a lot of effort into being an effective teacher.
Some fascinating sociology there. Someone should do a study. But no one will because it won't advance their career.
1. The extent to which the academic mindset is stuck in pre-internet ways of doing things. The whole process of advancing a career by publishing papers reviewed by a very small number of "peers" was established in the seventeenth century and was an efficient way of filtering out good ideas from bad ones given the technological constraints of the day. Needless to say, many of those constraints no longer apply. There is nothing wrong with peer review. Indeed, it is essential. But, in the age of the internet, there is a lot wrong with peer review conducted by a small handful of people selected by a journal publisher. The whole idea of a journal should be obsolete.
2. The extent to which traditional academia has managed to maintain its privileged role in society despite contributing less and less actual value. A tenured professor is still a highly respected position despite the fact that the actual job of being a professor has a lot more to do with politics than it does with academics. Teaching, which is supposed to be one of the core businesses of the academy, is actively frowned upon. Nothing destroys an academic career faster than putting a lot of effort into being an effective teacher.
Some fascinating sociology there. Someone should do a study. But no one will because it won't advance their career.