Hi, I am a disgruntled Phd student whose thesis is deemed a bit too 'controversial', 'challenging' and 'non-traditional' for mainstream journal publication. I have zero interest in modifying any of it in order to have it published and after months of job searching I dont think this would help anyway (my research is extremely critical of the powers that be in my field). So myself and a friend, who is in a similar situation, have decided to set up a free online journal that publishes theses and articles that challenge modern academic research publishing norms. My question is do people think it is a bit hair brained to cut my losses with traditional academic research and the university system and does anyone think this is a something they could benefit from?

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask... remember "No prophet is accepted in his own land"...
Academia is pretty conservative, and that sounds mildly revolutionary :)

Sounds fun though. Go for it.

BTW what is your disgruntling field?

Indeed! I just thought I would throw it out there to see what the reaction would be.My field is sociology of education - focusing on international development. Since the get go there has been lots of opposition to it - seems like it upsets quite a few of those who hold the purse strings. I don't want my research to be in vain and I'm pretty sure there are many others out there who are facing an uphill struggle to publish their research and have it make an impact. Mine has got quite a bit of attention in the media but traditional academia runs a mile from it. Fortunately my supervisor has been great but the constant journal rejection is a bit overwhelming...especially considering the revisions generally suggested!

I take it the revisions are usually diametrically opposed to your original thesis?!

pretty much....kind of along the lines of 'that's a bit incendiary'

Will yours be peer-reviewed?

Not in the traditional sense but perhaps some sort of open feedback or comment mechanism by members would useful. The wider idea is to get the research out there and to get people talking about the issues, so I think a forum or discussion would be really useful.

I'm sure it's frustrating but I'm not sure that your proposed solution is the right one. Ideally such a journal would be peer reviewed. If you stick to a narrow field you might struggle to find adequate numbers of submissions to sustain the journal. If you accept submissions from any field, do you have a sufficiently wide academic network to publicise the journal and attract peer reviewers? Some work that is controversial and challenging is important, game-changing stuff. But some is bordering on nonsense. Would you accept both categories? If not, how do you sort the wheat from the chaff?

It's worth noting that, however intellectually sound, most theses are rarely perfect to be published as they stand: almost all will need some kind of editing or reworking to translate into other types of document such as books or papers. So your reluctance to modify any of it at all may be putting up an additional barrier to publication. It may well be that the key arguments can be retained and accepted, but perhaps need presenting in a different way.

Unless you actually want a career in academic publishing, I would be reluctant to start a journal from scratch as to make it actually work would probably take more time than would permit you to continue with actually doing some research. So I think maybe you need to think about the long game. What do you want to do with your career?

Presumably your supervisor is supportive of the main approach of your work. Has s/he offered any advice as to target journals?

Just wondering how this would be much different from a blog?

Thank you for the replies. Well at this stage its just an idea, but one I think is worth pursuing. In answer to Hazy Jane - the suggestions for revision I received (from quite a few journals) would have compromised the articles I submitted to the extent that it would have been a white wash of the institutions that my research found to be culpable for the many development problems of the subject. That is just something that I'm not willing to do. My research does not toe the line and I'm kind of happy with that:-) At this stage I have about 6 months to wait for my defense so applying for post-docs and other jobs is kind of soul destroying. I'm really not sure that I want to continue in a system that I'm increasingly disillusioned with anyway. I love research and see its importance but I just cant deal with the constraints placed on it by the vested interests that don't make it a free and fair pursuit (definitely in my field and in higher education in general).I've become so cynical of the higher education industry over the last few years that I want to shake it up and help to bring it back to what it should be rather than the money making enterprise that I sadly think it has become (for the most part). DocInsanity - we don't necessarily want it to be different from a blog, but a blog that would have many people contributing and a space where research that might otherwise not get any attention would be discussed and hopefully have an impact. I hope ultimately that it would become a community space that challenges the norm and brings new answer to many different questions in different fields. I think that's my 5 a day responses so thanks again for your replies. Much appreciated.