Karl Bakeman

Seed interviews physicist Garrett Lisi on the reasons he rejects traditional academic journals.

Seed Magazine: Why did you choose not to submit your paper to a traditional peer-reviewed journal?
Lisi: I think peer review is important, but the journal-operated system is severely broken. I suspected this paper would get some attention, and I chose not to support any academic journal by submitting it. Under the current system, authors (who aren’t paid) give ownership of their papers to journals that have reviewers (who aren’t paid) approve them before publishing the papers and charging exorbitant fees to view them. These reviewers don’t always do a great job, and the journals aren’t providing much value in exchange for their fees. This old system persists because academic career advancement often depends on which journals scientists can get their papers into, and it comes at a high cost — in money, time, and stress. I think a better peer-review system could evolve from reviewers with good reputations picking the papers they find interesting out of an open pool, such as the physics arXiv, and commenting on them. This is essentially what happened with my paper, which received a lot of attention from physics bloggers — it’s been an example of open, collaborative peer review.

Seed: How will “open science” and other new ways of sharing information transform science?
Lisi: I think we’re in the midst of a gradual revolution, following the rise of the Internet. The success of the physics arXiv — where physicists post freely available versions of their papers — has made it possible for anyone to access the literature from anywhere. This let me move to Maui 10 years ago and stay in touch with the field. Now an NIH mandate, requiring that publicly funded papers be posted to PubMed, will produce the same liberating effect in other fields. The net is also affecting the way scientists work directly, with wikis and blogs used for discussions, collaborations, and individual note keeping. These new tools, along with online social networks, allow geographically independent researchers to keep in perpetual, productive contact. Since theoretical researchers are no longer anchored to one location, I’ve been working on creating Science Hostels — micro-institutes in beautiful places where scientists could live and work, while having a bit of fun, and keeping more of a balance in their lives.

I like the idea of PubMed or physics arXiv. It would be wonderfully disruptive if the social sciences had a central archive that was open to the public. However, there are plenty of institutional reasons why this sort of change would be difficult and unlikely. Are there any current resources like this on the web?