On Scholar-Led Knowledge Creation

I wonder, will you be content to donate your labor to subsidize the salary of a Revenue Acceleration Manager?

July 17, 2025

🍏your Thursday Essay 17th July, 2025

A well-researched original piece to get you thinking.


Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.
Know someone who will enjoy The Scholarly Letter? Forward it to them.

All previous editions of The Scholarly Letter are available on our website.

Online Thumbnail Credits: Fyfe, A. (2022). A history of scientific journals: Publishing at the Royal Society, 1665–2015. UCL Press.

Hi Scholar

It is often the case that discussions around academic publishing do not interest scholars at the early stages of their career - as many of you reading this are - unless they’re about how to get publications out.

In one's scholarly youth, very little is asked of the PhD student or the Postdoc by the industry itself; requests and expectations for peer review or other unpaid labor are typically reserved for more experienced academics. When we are young, the publishing industry exists to serve us and our career ambitions, which can be realized by publishing articles. It is only later, once we have started our climb up the steps of the ivory tower, that the publishing industry begins to make demands of its own.

This Letter is for Paid Subscribers

Become a paid subscriber to read the rest of this Essay and access our full archive.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

Paid subscribers receive an edition of The Scholarly Letter every Thursday: :

  • • Two editions of 🍎The Digest every month
  • • Two editions of 🍏 The Thursday Essay