ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Academic journal publishing reform

Okay kiddo, let's talk about academic journal publishing reform. You know how when you write a story or draw a picture, you probably want to show it to your family or friends, right? Well, scientists and other people who do research also like to share their work with other people who are interested in the same things. They write articles and papers about their research and then send them to a special kind of magazine called an academic journal.

Now, academic journals are important because they let other people know about what scientists are doing and what they are discovering. They also help scientists learn from each other and make new discoveries. But sometimes, the way academic journals work isn't very fair. When someone writes an article and sends it to a journal, the journal's editors decide whether or not to publish it. They can also ask other scientists to read the article and give their opinion, which is called peer review.

The problem is that some journals charge a lot of money to publish articles, which is a problem for scientists who don't have a lot of money to spend. Also, some journals only publish articles that are very popular or important, which means that some good research might not get published because it's not as popular or important. This can be very frustrating for scientists who want to share their work with others.

That's why some people are talking about academic journal publishing reform. This means they want to change the way academic journals work so that more people can read and learn from scientific research. Some people want journals to be free to publish in, so that scientists who don't have a lot of money can still share their work. Others want journals to change the way they decide what research to publish, so that good research that might not be as popular or important still gets published.

Overall, academic journal publishing reform is about making science more fair and accessible to everyone who wants to learn from it. It's like making sure that all the kids in your class get a turn to show their drawings or tell their stories, not just the ones that are the most popular.