The Academic Publishing and Peer Review Crisis: Remedy and Repair to Address Systemic Challenges and Inequities

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

We are at cross-roads with academic publishing and peer review for several reasons: 1) there is pressure on scholars to produce at higher rates, 2) academics face burnout as professional demands in their institutions increase, 3) Advances in AI have affected research production and academic freedom, and 4) journal editorial teams scramble to find reviewers, which has greatly extended the time to publication. Even as many institutions extended tenure and promotion clocks because of Covid-19, this response did not address the larger issues around disruptions to research, review, and production timelines and the way researchers are positioned differently in terms of gender, institutional type, and other consequential dimensions. This interactive panel will focus on how systemic challenges and inequities in the peer review process have led to--and continue to exacerbate--inequities in knowledge development and production and identify potential strategies to remedy and repair the academic publishing and peer review system.
     

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Tyrone C. Howard, University of California - Los Angeles

Participants

• Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Northwestern University

• Ezekiel J. Dixon-Roman, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Michigan

• Adam Gamoran, William T. Grant Foundation

• Francesca López, Pennsylvania State University

• Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, University of California - Los Angeles