The junkification of research

Abstract

This essay considers the emergent phenomenon of ‘junkification’ in academic research publishing. The term junkification was originally coined to describe the increasing volume of low-quality content and products permeating digital platforms. Extending junkification to online academic publishing, we draw on literature that frames academic research as an increasingly commodified good. We theorise that this commodification has enabled the same mechanisms that underpin the shift to junkification in digital marketplaces (and their subsequent degradation) to permeate online academic publishing. We argue that this trend represents a further perversion of the long-standing and pervasive ‘publish or perish’ culture in academia. As commercial publishing interests converge with new technologies, a system emerges where scholars increasingly bear the costs of low-esteem publishing that limits genuine scholarly contributions. We analyse the structural and cultural shifts within academic publishing that facilitate and perpetuate the junkification of research, and call for a re-evaluation of the underlying values and practices sustaining scholarly communication to counteract this trend.