In addition to researchers and scientists, people who rarely photograph these documents agree that scientific journals and articles are really necessary, because thanks to them we can learn about discoveries and research that affect our daily lives, and we can learn a lot of interesting things about the functioning of the world around us.
Yes, but the specialists who prepare these publications and the journals themselves are not produced for free, so their funding is often very difficult to compete with other media and publications.
It is also for this reason that it may seem incomprehensible that different articles, papers, and scientific journals expect different methods of editing from the scientists who write for them, which in their case means a lot of extra work, since it doesn’t take two minutes. To edit an already completed post in the selected format – On the other hand, the appearance of the type is more important if the opportunity to appear is missed.
Everyone has heard that time is money, but now it is becoming clear how much money those involved in the scientific life lose because of work that involves constant re-editing and rewriting. The amount does not change:
A total of US$230 million (HUF 78.7 billion) of time was wasted by scientists worldwide in 2021 due to reformatting of documents sent to journals.
The authors of the analysis published in BMC Medicine were appalled by the high costs and therefore recommended that journals allow articles to be published with fewer format requirements, so that researchers can spend more of their time and money on research, he writes. nature.
I can’t imagine why anyone would care about the format of an article when they first read it in a magazine. I don’t think this is a productive use of my time
said David Shiffman, a biologist at Arizona State University in Tempe.
The current system is not sustainable
“Not all journals reject applications that do not meet regulations, but there is an implicit pressure to follow,” added Tibor Varga, an epidemiologist at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of the research.
The researchers who spoke to Nature say that’s basically a good thing, and that they don’t mind adapting their articles to the style of the journal, as long as the work is done after their studies have been accepted. However, this time burden disproportionately affects early-career researchers.
If people are more experienced they may have a whole team to help with this, but beginners usually don’t work with a big team
Michelle Starr, a pediatric nephrologist at Indianapolis University of Medicine, pointed this out.
How do you determine the value of lost time?
To get an idea of the costs of ongoing reintroductions, Varga and his colleagues calculated average university hourly wages in the United States and the European Union, the time it takes to reformat publications, and the annual number of reintroductions.
Of these it has been proven
If current journaling practices don’t change, the ongoing realignment could cost up to $2.5 billion between 2022 and 2030.
Tibor Varga, who was involved in the research, added that although some journals have already become more lenient about manuscript formatting, it has become inconceivable that researchers will embrace practices that cause them so much inconvenience.
The current system is not sustainable!
– concluded the specialist.
