| Abstract: | Communication and media studies owe much to our academic journals. At the same time, however, journals increasingly become a space where reputation and careers are negotiated. In so doing, journals move away from their genuinely substantive role as shapers of academic discourse and are increasingly being misused as a political tool to shape science and research. This contribution highlights three particularly toxic issues: (1) the ecological fallacy of inferring individual quality from journal impact, (2) the equation of citations, impact and quality, and (3) the blind use of peer review. The above-mentioned developments have produced a dramatic rise in publication output and a ridiculous arms race for publications. In this race, the generated publication output bears little relation to a healthy gain in knowledge. The increasing importance of academic journals leads to a gradual normalization of the journal article format as “publication standard”. This privileges a specific form of research that lends itself to the publication in journals. Combined with a blind use of peer review, this is a dangerous breeding ground for “normal science” and conceptual stagnation. |
