From: JJE Esposito <[log in to unmask]> Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2019 11:04:09 -0400 Rick, One last comment and I will leave this alone. I am not saying that people "misrepresent" things, which implies a moral failing of some sort. I am saying that they don't know. Consciousness ain't all it's cracked up to be. For anyone who thinks this is worth considering further, I refer you to Daniel Kahneman's book, "Thinking Fast and Slow": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow Joe Esposito On Sun, Jun 2, 2019 at 10:00 AM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Fri, 31 May 2019 02:24:49 +0000 > > Joe, I’m not saying that in general, people never misrepresent their views > or their behavior. I’m saying that in the particular case of researchers > reporting on why they choose particular journals, I would need to see > evidence for the proposition that either a) they don’t actually know or b) > they do know but they’re performatively dissembling in some way. > > > > I’m absolutely open to seeing such evidence, but I’m not trusting enough > to just take that assertion as given and thereby discount or dismiss the > survey results. > > > > --- > > Rick Anderson > > Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication > > Marriott Library, University of Utah > > Desk: (801) 587-9989 > > Cell: (801) 721-1687 > > [log in to unmask] > > > > > > From: JJE Esposito <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Thu, 30 May 2019 21:10:40 -0400 > > You are all too trusting, Rick. Did you see that recent survey that > claimed that 45% of college students go hungry? Here is the link: > > > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/nyregion/hunger-college-food-insecurity.html > > Mind you, this is in a nation where the biggest health problem is obesity. > > I know it's cheating, but this exchange makes me think of the famous, and > perhaps apocryphal, quotation attributed to Henry Ford: > > “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster > horses.” > > > Joe Esposito > > > > On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 8:50 PM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]> > > Date: Thu, 30 May 2019 04:16:45 +0000 > > > > Joe, > > > > > Eh, I don’t know. > > > > If there’s a compelling reason to believe that researchers really don’t > know why they choose one journal over another, I’d be interested to hear > it. Otherwise, I think I’m willing to assume that they have at least that > much insight into their own minds. > > > > As for whether they’re answering questions performatively, which I > assume would mean “in the way that they think they’re expected to, or that > they should”—I guess maybe they are. But the danger of seeing every survey > response as a performance is that it turns the survey into a Rorschach test > for the person conducting it. Again, in this particular context I think > we’d need evidence for the proposition that researchers are somehow > misrepresenting their own motivations; we can’t just assume that they are > because human communication includes a performative aspect. > > > > --- > > Rick Anderson > > Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication > > Marriott Library, University of Utah > > Desk: (801) 587-9989 > > Cell: (801) 721-1687 > > [log in to unmask] > > > > > > From: JJE Esposito <[log in to unmask]> > > Date: Tue, 28 May 2019 20:18:43 -0400 > > > > Rick, > > > > I don't think we can assume that people know why they do things or how > they think about things simply by asking them. People perform when asked > questions; they even perform in private for imaginary audiences. Without > taking into account the performative aspect of human communications, we > miss the meaning. > > > > Joe Esposito > > > > > > > > On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 8:09 PM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]> > > Date: Tue, 28 May 2019 02:41:05 +0000 > > > > So this (to me) points to the issue of why people publish. It is not, > and hasn’t > > for some time, been primarily to communicate the work. That happens > through > > multiple other fora such as conferences, discussion pieces etc. A > significant > > reason for the high publication rate of those employed in academia is > that is > > > what ‘counts’ for grants, for promotion, for league tables etc. > > > > And yet when Ithaka S+R recently asked faculty to rank the criteria by > which they select journals in which to publish, advancement criteria (“The > journal has a high impact factor, with an excellent academic reputation”) > came in third, after two communication-with-colleagues criteria (“The > journal’s area of coverage is very close to my immediate area of research”; > “The current issues of the journal are circulated widely, and are well read > by scholars in your field”). > > > > So it sounds like communicating their work _and_ academic advancement > are important factors for authors when they make publishing decisions. But > if this survey is accurate, their primary concern when selecting journals > is to make sure their work is communicated to their disciplinary peers and > colleagues, even though informal channels of communication are also > available to them. > > > > The study is at > https://sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SR-Report-US-Faculty-Survey-2018-04122019.pdf > . > > --- > > > > Rick Anderson > > Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication > > Marriott Library, University of Utah > > Desk: (801) 587-9989 > > Cell: (801) 721-1687 > > [log in to unmask] > > > [SNIP] >