Of the eleven reasons given at the top, I thought the most obvious issue is raised by number three: Virtually no one reads most academic publications. This seems to be true in many cases even for an academics writing to other academics. The sheer number of papers published is staggering, and unless one is already very prominent in his or her field, it seems unlikely that a large audience will be exposed to one’s paper. There are exceptions of course, such as the reputation of the journal, but if we are to assume that we are not referring to academic superstars publishing in the absolute top journals in a given field, the audience of academics is also likely to be small.
If one’s goal is to write books, there may potentially be a problem in becoming perceived as legitimate enough to gain the attraction of a publisher if one doesn’t hold a research position and doesn’t publish in journals. I mentioned this to Diego as well. It is speculation on my part, and I’m sure there are many exceptions to this rule, but it does seem like a non-academic will be regarded by publishers differently than academics. I’d be interested to hear the thoughts of someone with direct knowledge of the publishing industry on this point.
Of the eleven reasons given at the top, I thought the most obvious issue is raised by number three: Virtually no one reads most academic publications. This seems to be true in many cases even for an academics writing to other academics. The sheer number of papers published is staggering, and unless one is already very prominent in his or her field, it seems unlikely that a large audience will be exposed to one’s paper. There are exceptions of course, such as the reputation of the journal, but if we are to assume that we are not referring to academic superstars publishing in the absolute top journals in a given field, the audience of academics is also likely to be small.
If one’s goal is to write books, there may potentially be a problem in becoming perceived as legitimate enough to gain the attraction of a publisher if one doesn’t hold a research position and doesn’t publish in journals. I mentioned this to Diego as well. It is speculation on my part, and I’m sure there are many exceptions to this rule, but it does seem like a non-academic will be regarded by publishers differently than academics. I’d be interested to hear the thoughts of someone with direct knowledge of the publishing industry on this point.