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Why read academic journals any more?

Why read academic journals any more? Logist. Res. (2013) 6:1–2 DOI 10.1007/s12159-013-0099-z EDITORIAL Peter Klaus Published online: 31 January 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Just a few weeks ago I overheard an academic colleague I do not want to be unrealistic. It is an element of suggest in a discussion that ‘‘the habit of reading academic today’s academic reality that the value of publishing and journals really no longer is in sync with our times’’: Google publications is more often with the authors than with and other electronic searching devices now offer the readers. The process of researching, writing, and revising capability for every researcher and author to do ‘‘on papers increases authors’ insight in their chosen field of demand’’, perfectly project-specific inquiries into the fast research. Adding references on their lists of publications growing electronic repositories of published materials. This helps their careers! Assisting authors to serve these pur- is both more time-efficient, she argued, and yields—with poses is an important and legitimate function of academic some likelihood—results on research questions at hand that journals. are broader and richer than what even perseverant tradi- But I like to make the argument that a balance between tional readers of academic journals can hope to extract and project-specific ‘‘on demand’’ reading behavior, however retain from their ‘‘anticipatory’’ general scanning and time-efficient, and a habit of some broader, less directed studying of their peers’ work. scanning and studying of one’s academic peers’ work is Right? The idea of giving up general reading of aca- indispensible for the advancement of scientific knowlegde. demic journals at first sight sounds like a radical departure In modest ways, I think, this can be proven by looking at from the traditional values and habits of academia. But the–quite incidental–selection of articles which our then, upon second consideration, don’t we logisticians reviewers suggested for this issue of LOGISTICS consider the shift from ‘‘push’’ to ‘‘pull’’ activation of RESEARCH: industrial supply chains as the more modern, more effec- The papers by Sharma/Lote and Van Le/Huyngh/Clau- tive practice in many instances? Why should this not apply diu/Achim relate to the much discussed phenomenon oft he to knowledge supply chains as well? ‘‘Bullwhip Effect’’ in supply chains. Sharma/Lote suggest And being honest to ourselves: Is not the rate of articles to apply the analogy of vibrations and mechanisms of which most of us actually read and study out of general dampening vibrations to an interesting case of demand interest in our field’s academic journals very, very low? volatility. They may inspire ‘‘Bullwhip Effect’’ researchers Or wrong? Don’t we loose an important source of to come up with new kinds of policies to successfully inspiration and access to new knowledge if we completely reduce system vibrations. A similar promise may be in Van abandone the traditional academic habit of general, ‘‘ser- Le/Huyngh/Claudiu/Achim’s research on the effects of enditpitous’’ reading—i.e. reading which is not focused on inventory sharing on the Bullwhip Effect. a single, preconsidered question, but provides multiple The paper by Drezner, if read not from the technical chances to make unexpected, ‘‘pleasant discoveries’’? perspective of a Quantitiative Methods expert, but—more broadly—as a contribution to the advancement of knowl- edge shows similarity in a set of location problems which otherwise were seen as not related. Weichert/et al.’s paper P. Klaus (&) on technologies for automating the task of unstacking Nuremberg, Germany pallets offers a ‘‘new combination’’ of such technologies. e-mail: peter.klaus@wiso.uni-erlangen.de 123 2 Logist. Res. (2013) 6:1–2 Last not least, the paper by Sebastian/Bui/Hempsch discover new questions and get inspiration from further shows how negotiation processes, which are taking place than what a focused Internet search offers. That, in itself, between actors in supply chains, could be automated makes scanning and reading academic journals worthwhile. through the application of multi-agent technology. It is an Best regards, impressive example of how the distant worlds of research Yours on people’s behaviors and sophisticated information tech- nology applications could be brought together for innova- tive problem solutions. I repeat the point that I was trying to make with these— Peter Klaus maybe quite inadequate—interpretations of typical journal Editor-in-Chief LOGISTIS RESEARCH papers in our field: Even if we are not able to fully December 2012 appreciate and evaluate the technicalities of many subjects published in a heterogenous field like Logistics, we will http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Logistics Research Springer Journals

Why read academic journals any more?

Logistics Research , Volume 6 (1) – Jan 31, 2013

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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Subject
Engineering; Engineering Economics, Organization, Logistics, Marketing; Logistics; Industrial and Production Engineering; Simulation and Modeling; Operation Research/Decision Theory
ISSN
1865-035X
eISSN
1865-0368
DOI
10.1007/s12159-013-0099-z
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Logist. Res. (2013) 6:1–2 DOI 10.1007/s12159-013-0099-z EDITORIAL Peter Klaus Published online: 31 January 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Just a few weeks ago I overheard an academic colleague I do not want to be unrealistic. It is an element of suggest in a discussion that ‘‘the habit of reading academic today’s academic reality that the value of publishing and journals really no longer is in sync with our times’’: Google publications is more often with the authors than with and other electronic searching devices now offer the readers. The process of researching, writing, and revising capability for every researcher and author to do ‘‘on papers increases authors’ insight in their chosen field of demand’’, perfectly project-specific inquiries into the fast research. Adding references on their lists of publications growing electronic repositories of published materials. This helps their careers! Assisting authors to serve these pur- is both more time-efficient, she argued, and yields—with poses is an important and legitimate function of academic some likelihood—results on research questions at hand that journals. are broader and richer than what even perseverant tradi- But I like to make the argument that a balance between tional readers of academic journals can hope to extract and project-specific ‘‘on demand’’ reading behavior, however retain from their ‘‘anticipatory’’ general scanning and time-efficient, and a habit of some broader, less directed studying of their peers’ work. scanning and studying of one’s academic peers’ work is Right? The idea of giving up general reading of aca- indispensible for the advancement of scientific knowlegde. demic journals at first sight sounds like a radical departure In modest ways, I think, this can be proven by looking at from the traditional values and habits of academia. But the–quite incidental–selection of articles which our then, upon second consideration, don’t we logisticians reviewers suggested for this issue of LOGISTICS consider the shift from ‘‘push’’ to ‘‘pull’’ activation of RESEARCH: industrial supply chains as the more modern, more effec- The papers by Sharma/Lote and Van Le/Huyngh/Clau- tive practice in many instances? Why should this not apply diu/Achim relate to the much discussed phenomenon oft he to knowledge supply chains as well? ‘‘Bullwhip Effect’’ in supply chains. Sharma/Lote suggest And being honest to ourselves: Is not the rate of articles to apply the analogy of vibrations and mechanisms of which most of us actually read and study out of general dampening vibrations to an interesting case of demand interest in our field’s academic journals very, very low? volatility. They may inspire ‘‘Bullwhip Effect’’ researchers Or wrong? Don’t we loose an important source of to come up with new kinds of policies to successfully inspiration and access to new knowledge if we completely reduce system vibrations. A similar promise may be in Van abandone the traditional academic habit of general, ‘‘ser- Le/Huyngh/Claudiu/Achim’s research on the effects of enditpitous’’ reading—i.e. reading which is not focused on inventory sharing on the Bullwhip Effect. a single, preconsidered question, but provides multiple The paper by Drezner, if read not from the technical chances to make unexpected, ‘‘pleasant discoveries’’? perspective of a Quantitiative Methods expert, but—more broadly—as a contribution to the advancement of knowl- edge shows similarity in a set of location problems which otherwise were seen as not related. Weichert/et al.’s paper P. Klaus (&) on technologies for automating the task of unstacking Nuremberg, Germany pallets offers a ‘‘new combination’’ of such technologies. e-mail: peter.klaus@wiso.uni-erlangen.de 123 2 Logist. Res. (2013) 6:1–2 Last not least, the paper by Sebastian/Bui/Hempsch discover new questions and get inspiration from further shows how negotiation processes, which are taking place than what a focused Internet search offers. That, in itself, between actors in supply chains, could be automated makes scanning and reading academic journals worthwhile. through the application of multi-agent technology. It is an Best regards, impressive example of how the distant worlds of research Yours on people’s behaviors and sophisticated information tech- nology applications could be brought together for innova- tive problem solutions. I repeat the point that I was trying to make with these— Peter Klaus maybe quite inadequate—interpretations of typical journal Editor-in-Chief LOGISTIS RESEARCH papers in our field: Even if we are not able to fully December 2012 appreciate and evaluate the technicalities of many subjects published in a heterogenous field like Logistics, we will

Journal

Logistics ResearchSpringer Journals

Published: Jan 31, 2013

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