Shift From Research Papers to Blogging: A Way Towards Scholarship?
This article is co-authored by Siddhant Dubey, a student from the Institute of Law Nirma Unversity, Ahmedabad.
Contextualization: Immortal Expressions of Mortal Ideas
Men Are mortal so are ideas, however, unlike men ideas can be immortalized by expressing them in some tangible medium. In simple words, philosophers and scholars though are physically absent have become immortal through their works. The expression of their ideas (through books, poems, etc.) has made them an inevitable part of our culture. The present article is an attempt to highlight how the recent cult of celebrating the culture of research papers among the students has limited the scope of scholarship and would likely impede it further. The article underscores the need for transposing this culture with blogging to fructify the goal of creating work and maximize scholarship.
With the advent of social media and torrent of information, distraction has become a celebrated routine under the garb of multitasking, the attention span of an individual has significantly affected. As per research, the average attention span has reduced to 8.25 from 12 seconds in 15 years. These factors have affected the reading styles of people especially students which further interferes with their ability to create and writing scholarly works. Here, scholarly work refers to the work which adds a certain value to the status quo and unlocks new ideas to develop.
Cult of Research Papers: Curtailing Creativity?
In the initial years of law school, students often yearn for publication of their work on reputed platforms. However, owing to the lack of skills and experience they often face rejections, and consequently many leave writing. This is a genuine human concern that if one does not get the desired validation, one loses motivation to further indulge in it.[i] Relevantly, the motivation-hygiene theory suggests that an individual requires certain incentives or validation to keep working. Further, it is to be noted that the fascination for creating work and getting recognition is an inevitable human trait. It also coincides with Aristotle’s aphorism ‘man is a social animal’ which suggests people’s urge of belongingness and establishing individual identity in the society.
Through writing, individuals externalize their ideas and provide a tangible expression to the society for appropriation. Original writing is intellectual property as it stems from the intellectual labor and skill of the author. Thus, such writings represent the personality of the author as argued by the personhood theory of IP. Notably, whenever a new work is created, it becomes common stock and adds value to society. However, the purpose of such writing gets blurred when the work remains inaccessible to people. As per the research conducted by the department of information and library science in 2007, half of the academic papers are read-only by their authors and publishers. This datum not only highlights the unadded value to the society because of the non-utilization of works but also accentuates the potential ideas which could have developed from the uncharted works.
In recent times, maximum journals have turned information into a paid good (e.g. Taxmann or Jstor), thus creating an economic barrier for accessing scholarly information. It is noteworthy that access and creation go hand in hand. Therefore, if one cannot access a work, he/she would not be able to develop an idea based on that work which further eliminates the ability to create a new work. Moreover, language plays a very important role in shaping the discourse of society. Pertinently, the language of research papers is not very reader-friendly as it targets specific readership. However, blogs are written in a simpler language and aim to cater to a larger readership. Thus, blogs can unlock more ideas and enabling people to further generate content.
Illustratively, Ram writes a blog on the Islamic understanding of copyright where he provides a Qur’anic interpretation of the authorship concept. Laxman reads the work and criticizes it in another blog. Similarly, Zakir reads both the works and writes a short comment on both the articles. In this way, people have three news works to read and understand copyright. However, this would not have been possible had Ram decided to publish his work as a research paper.
Further, in this way, people can be incentivized to create more frequent works, unlike research papers which have fixed publication schedules and often take substantial time to publish. An incessant writing habit also aids an individual to improve the thinking and articulation abilities because of instant feedback on her work. Also, writing involves a filtration of thoughts which enhances the articulation of an individual.
Author-Reader Circle
The creation of work also enables others to create work (as argued above) which implies an author-reader circle. Simply, this shift can motivate more readers to become authors and create work for society. Also, even if a reader does not engage in writing, he/she can still contribute by bringing a new perspective to the discussion. In this way, more scholarships can be created over time. Pertinently, scholarship grows when an individual writes and another person reads it. However, one cannot truly contribute to the scholarship simply by reading. It happens when an individual takes an existing idea and sprinkles its thoughts onto it, thus producing a new perspective into the society.
Research papers are often construed as the highest form of academic writing, suggesting the inconceivable regard for quantity. However, it’s not always true. A person yearning to write a 10000 words research may not add the same value to the existing debate as a person writing 1500 words blog. Therefore, bracketing research papers as the supreme medium of scholarship seems a flawed conception and obfuscates the notion of quality. Today even most acclaimed scholars are engaging themselves in blogging and are being cited in the courts of law. This manifests that even shorter content can be authoritative and bring a change.
Print journal publication also poses serious threats to the environment. A study says that every tree produces oxygen for 3 people and to produce every piece of paper these trees are uprooted. Research shows 14% of deforestation is done to satisfy our appetite for paper goods. Keeping in mind the well-being of the environment, it is better to shift towards blogging which involves the internet for publication.
Conclusion
As per the theory of habitus, the disposition of society is such that they only appreciate the social structure which they have witnessed their whole life. This makes sense in the present context where only the research papers are expected to structurize discourse. However, there is a dire need to cap this conception and inculcate a culture where everyone who reads and can write. Earlier, the advent of papers and printers acted as a revolutionary instrument in generating scholarship and increasing the value of thoughts. Similarly, the internet can also be used as a modern revolutionary tool to incentivize people for expressing their ideas and generating scholarships.
This article does not endorse the complete abolition of research papers; however, the idea is to disabuse the notion of considering research papers as the deity of writing and scholarship. Considering the factors discussed above, there must be an understanding among the scholars that blogging is also a very important and authoritative medium of expressing thoughts.
[i] Carl-Göran Heidegren, Recognition, Redistribution, and Justice, Acta Sociologica Vol. 47, №4, (Dec. 2004), pp. 365–373
