𖠫 Why I've removed journal titles from the papers on my CV - Barnett - 2024
in modern scientific culture, there is too much focus on the journal — and not enough on the science itself (Barnett, 2024)
Barnett opens with a strong point: people cannot generally free-recall where the great scientific advancements were originally published, yet modern academia is pretty obsessed with getting published in prestigious journals or by prestigious publishers.
Barnett goes on to emphasize why this matters: because ”number of successful prestigious publications” is a simple rule-of-thumb for judging another scholar, relieving e.g., a promotion and tenure or hiring committee from needing to understand anything about what a candidate has actually achieved. Thus, Barnett advocates removing journal titles from listings of publications in one’s CV:
To shift this focus in my own practice, I have removed all the journal names from my CV. Anyone interested in my track record will now see only my papers’ titles, which better illustrate what I’ve achieved. If they want to read more, they can click on each paper title, which is hyperlinked to the published article. (Barnett, 2024)
Yet Barnett also notes that this change conflicts with another issue: the use of predatory journals or paper mills to buff up a CV.
I suppose the core issue here is really how to help peer reviewers effectively, efficiently, and ethically judge another scholar’s record or potential when determining hiring/tenure/promotion/funding. Relying on prestige is not the answer, but I don’t think ignoring journals and simply reading publication titles is sufficient either.
My understanding is that the change Barnett advocates for aligns with the “narrative CV.” Perhaps that is the answer here? I need to look into it more.
Barnett, A. (2024). Why I’ve removed journal titles from the papers on my CV. Nature. 10.1038/d41586-024-02596-y