> The emphasis on novelty has deep roots in academic publishing. It used to be that publishing was expensive, and any repetition came at the expense of other things that could have been published. Today, however, publishing is essentially free.
Requiring novelty shows respect for the readers' time. Paper and ink costs were never the primary limiting factors (even if the publishers' claimed otherwise to save face).
"repetition came at the expense of other things" -- no, repetition comes at the expense equal to Number of Readers * Time Wasted on Each non-novel paper.
If the author just stuck to "novelty is hard to really know" then it's a much stronger argument.
Requiring novelty shows respect for the readers' time. Paper and ink costs were never the primary limiting factors (even if the publishers' claimed otherwise to save face).
"repetition came at the expense of other things" -- no, repetition comes at the expense equal to Number of Readers * Time Wasted on Each non-novel paper.
If the author just stuck to "novelty is hard to really know" then it's a much stronger argument.