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SRL's New Deputy Editor: Just Another Cog in the Academic Publishing Machine?
So, SRL gets a new Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Big deal. I mean, seriously, does anyone outside of the niche world of seismology even know what "SRL" means? Probably not. And before you ask, no, I'm not looking it up.
The press release is full of the usual PR garbage. "Dedication," "thoughtfulness," "fresh ideas"... Give me a break. It's academic publishing. It's a soul-crushing grind of peer review and chasing citations. Fresh ideas? Please. The only fresh idea they need is how to get more people to read the damn journal.
The Illusion of Progress
Hongfeng Yang, the new deputy, says one of the key challenges is "how to effectively engage and appropriately recognize high-quality reviewers." Oh, so now they’re admitting the system is broken? Reviewers are the unsung heroes of academic publishing, slaving away for free, and all they get is a thank you note and maybe a vague sense of contributing to the greater good. No wonder it's hard to find good ones.
And then there's the "cultivate strong author communities" line. Translation: "We need to pump up our submission numbers so we can justify our existence." It's all about metrics and impact factors, not about actual scientific progress.
Yang also mentions wanting SRL paper submissions that include “new observations and methods in seismology, as well as applications of seismic and geophysics methods in fields out of seismology." Which is fine, I guess. But is this really going to "promote seismology to different fields and the public"? Or is it just another way to say, "We need to find a way to make our research seem more relevant so we can get more funding"?
The Cookie Crumbles
Speaking of irrelevant, I somehow stumbled on a page about "Hakim Boularbah - SRL" while trying to figure out what the hell "SRL" stands for. It's just a cookie consent form. Seriously? Is this the kind of cutting-edge web presence we can expect from a leading seismological journal? Maybe I should have looked up "srl meaning" on Google. Nah.
And the other search result was even worse—a dead link on Newser.com. “We're sorry, but the page you have requested does not exist.” Sums up the whole damn thing, doesn’t it?
I mean, I get it. Seismology is important. Understanding earthquakes is crucial for public safety. But does it have to be so...boring? So shrouded in jargon and academic BS?
The Echo Chamber
Yang’s got the credentials, offcourse. A B.S., an M.S., a Ph.D. Memberships in all the right societies. He’s climbed the academic ladder, played the game. But does that make him the right person to shake things up? Or is he just another product of the same system that needs to be shaken up in the first place?
Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe Yang really does have some innovative ideas. Maybe he can actually make SRL a more engaging and relevant publication. But let's be real: the odds are stacked against him. Academic publishing is a dinosaur, and it's not going to change easily.
But wait, am I being unfair? Maybe I’m just jaded. Maybe this appointment is a genuinely positive step forward. Maybe...nah. Probably not.
Just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
It's all just window dressing, isn't it? Another cog in the machine, another layer of bureaucracy. The system grinds on, churning out papers that nobody reads, and the world keeps spinning.