What exactly is a publon?
Just as the electron is the fundamental unit of electricity, the publon is the fundamental unit of publishable content - “the elementary quantum of scientific research which justifies publication”.
As it stands today, academic tenure and research funding are allocated primarily based on publication records. Increasing the number of publications you have, the quality of the journals you publish in, and the number of citations your publications receive are the most important things you can do to improve your career chances in academia. This tends to result in a situation where every possible piece of research is packaged as a paper. Hence publons.
Publons.com
The publon generating journal-based ecosystem in which academic research is communicated and discussed is destined to change significantly in the next few years. We have a well-defined set of ideas for how to best effect that change. A detailed paper (and discussion) describing some of these ideas can be found in Publon #1, the first paper published on publons.com. Below are the key points.
- We believe that changing the incentives that academics face is the key to generating innovation in academic collaboration and communication.
- This will only be achieved by creating a new set of metrics for measuring academic performance. These metrics must complement the current journal-based system.
- We are specifically interested in modernizing peer review.
- We believe that open access is an inevitability.
- We respect your privacy.
Other ideas
There are many other interesting ideas about, and approaches to, disrupting the academic publishing industry. We find the following very interesting.
Thinkers:
Companies:
