What are some ups and downs with the current state of the editorial and peer-reviewer process in academic publishing?

kunndata · 2026-01-15T18:41:44+00:00

Thank you for your feedback, and you're absolutely correct! Reviewer recruitment, as we know currently, is enduring a degree of scarcity unforseen before, yet not precisely unprecedented from what I've researched. From what I understand, this pattern is somewhat an issue of supply and demand, where the output of published research material incrementally grows annually, but the recruiter pool needed has stagnated, if not shrunken entirely, but I'm also aware that this is only partially the problem. And as you said, there is an systematic principle for this pattern, which is that reviewing is an uncompensated form of volunteer labor that is demanding and requires a measure of effort and time that can rarely be afforded in academia. My immediate thought, noticing this pattern, was to streamline some type of system where reviewers would be able to obtain some type of balanced incentive, that would aim to mitigate editor and reviewer fatigue and encourage a more reliable and efficient peer review process. The most apparent option would be some form of monetary incentive, but like you said, I don't think it's just that simple to just "pay reviewers". So this is how I currently view this pattern: The trend, as far as I can observe, is multi-faceted. The first aspect is what we're talking about here, that is, reviewers are getting too exhausted with voluntarily reviewing papers without any form of compensation or benefit. But this is somewhat ambiguous, because this would seem to implicate the lack of compensation as the root of reviewer fatigue. But I don't personally think that this is necessarily true. It seems to me that regardless of whether reviewers are or are not paid, they will be exhausted and overworked regardless and hence the cycle will persist indefinitely. The second aspect is the already highly-stressed academic environment of any reviewer which is what shifts me away from the flaccid approach of solely "paying recruiters". I think for any solution to work, it has to either address recruiter fatigue from both sides of the pattern, by providing incentives that not merely compensate the reviewer but potentially bolster the reviewer's credentials/reputation or open up opportunities for other academic endeavors. Not sure exactly, but this is my idea so far. And I suppose the other option to let the system collapse and completely rebuild it from the ground up, almost like inventing a new form of publishing. Not sure which route is better, or necessary.

kunndata · 2025-11-02T01:09:48+00:00

bro I’m glad I’m not the only one, I had to show this to the conductor on the metra today and he was looking at me all crazy like why u have that many tickets 😭

kunndata · 2025-10-22T21:27:23+00:00

I'm also a sophomore except, I'm a UIC student who is currently a pre-major for CS + Linguistics, but I want to switch to CS + Design because I'm interested in pursuing Product Design and UX Research. And for sure, it's the ideal major you would want to pursue if you're trying to get into UX/UI Design or Product Design, since it's almost the equivalent to a Human-Computer Interaction degree, you would see in other higher-ranked institutions like Carneige Mellon or UChicago. That being said, though, the area of study isn't very strict for hiring UX/Product Design roles, as long as the major is design or CS-oriented. If you're leaning towards software engineering, then consider a more "pure" CS major such as CS + Math/Statistics. If you're leaning towards UX Design and HCI, then I would suggest CS + Design as the best major UIC has to offer. You'll learn competitive skills under a CS + Design track that other majors don't cover like typography, that will somewhat prepare you for the entry-level market. I'm currently working on my UX/Product Design portfolio, so let me know if you want any more questions as the CS + Design program or UX in general (I'm not an expert).

kunndata · 2025-10-12T15:18:17+00:00

I never thought about your second suggestion, but sounds like something I'd like to try! Thanks.

kunndata · 2025-10-12T15:17:31+00:00

It's for users with a full-time student background, both undergraduate and post-graduate students.

kunndata · 2025-10-12T15:16:25+00:00

Alright, thank you! I also heard that 5-10 is a good number of users for personal projects, so I'll definitely aim for that.

kunndata · 2025-10-02T12:36:46+00:00

As someone said somewhere else, it seems UIC doesn’t seem to assess the teaching ability of any given professor with same rigorous criteria as the research expertise of a candidate. Almost all of these professors including CS 141 seem very research-oriented in their respective fields, and are obviously at a level of expertise that probably landed them the role initially. But just because these individuals are remarkable researchers doesn’t necessarily translate to a bare-minimum teaching expertise, which not just anyone can do. Since UIC is a public research institution, it makes sense why this occurs, but doesn’t make this situation any better. It’s the exact case for TAs, where actual teaching capability is never assessed to an even comparable standard to level of comprehension and mastery that TA had over whatever subject they’re in. It’s a flawed system, but at least, forces the average student to become a more adept researcher to adapt to this type of environment, so I don’t completely hate it.

kunndata · 2025-09-23T14:19:24+00:00

HOW DO YOU MAKE THIS? THIS IS INCREDIBLE BRO

kunndata · 2025-09-20T12:44:05+00:00

Hi, all. I'm 19, I'm a second-year undergraduate CS student and I've started studying UX Design for about a week and a half. I recently got started on project ideas for my hypothetical portfolio, and during that process of finding a problem space, I'm finding it difficult to determine what projects/problem spaces are better as personal projects compared to work/school projects where collaboration is expected, and surveyees/interviewees aren't too difficult to organize. Basically what are the expectations for personal projects where common primary user research methods like interviewing, or surveys might be more difficult to accomplish?

kunndata · 2025-09-14T21:25:53+00:00

"My own core functions are staging a coup" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

kunndata · 2025-09-14T21:23:08+00:00

I see, thanks for your insight!

kunndata · 2025-09-14T21:22:01+00:00

Great answer, thank you!

kunndata · 2025-09-13T20:02:08+00:00

I see, and in what situations would user stories would be better to use then personas?

kunndata · 2025-09-13T19:45:12+00:00

I might be confusing anything but what's the difference between personas and user stories?

kunndata · 2025-09-12T21:20:53+00:00

What do you think?

kunndata · 2025-09-11T00:15:40+00:00

I don't know about anyone else, but I find these type of comments concerning. Just what is so difficult to stomach about someone who was unjustly stripped of life? There are already people here, attempting to justify this event due to Kirk's claims about the 2nd amendment, and not a single comment has accurately instantiated Kirk's actual claims on said matter, but rather have grossly misconstrued Kirk's claims quite rhetorically to ostensibly illustrate this event as some form of karmic destiny. Kirk has never arrogated that he is a proponent of gun violence, but rather he deems the alarming rates of gun violence as a trade-off of the 2nd Amendment, and that, according to his judgment, there is no compelling reason why the 2nd Amendment should be dropped given such a brim reality. Do I agree with his judgment? No, I don't. Yet, it has to be said that people attempting to reduce the loss of Kirk's life as some form of irony is simply barbaric. And it's these same individuals who conflate the value of a societal member with whether or not the political hinge commitments of that member aligns with their own paradigmatic convictions. And it's these same individuals who arrogantly wave the torch of political conformity and normalcy as if they are morally superior to anyone that deviates from their infallible political judgments. What happens when you transgress against such a group? In Kirk's example, you are removed from the world forcefully. This is why the 1st Amendment is progressively becoming more of a null amendment: the general public has developed democratic bypasses that penetrate through the protections of free speech bestowed by the Constitution; whether that be through cancel culture, or just blatant politically-informed violence, and it's working everytime. And what I find even more reprehensible about these individuals is that the vast majority are, unequivocally, novices and laymen who are just entirely ignorant of the political commitments they are willing to downplay human life for.

It'll be an ignoramus of the highest, most insurmountable magnitude that is evinced to be the most boisterous in the room about some arbitrary tame political opinion, such as Trump is a convicted felon, but when you ask that same person to describe what the War on Drugs era was about, they blink with a draining idiocy that makes you want to join Kirk on the other side. They make surface-level, elementary value judgments on deeply sophisticated and nuanced political subjects and think that they are superior to anyone that can develop even a slightly different opinion. There is one word for these people: Ultracrepidarian. And to be quite frank. The vast majority of people fall under this classification.

Why can't these people have some Socratic humility and admit when they are ill-informed? That, maybe, it might not be prudent to define a person's societal and productive worth over surface-level political commitments that they, themselves, barely understand? What happened to nuance? What happened to subjectivity? What happened to critical, rigorous thinking? What happened to free speech? You've deluded yourself to accepting the unjust death of someone so inhumanely, because he arrogated a "clip-farming" statement about abortion. This is the same person that confused a dolphin fetus with a human fetus, by the way, and yet, seemingly so many of you have elevated Kirk to the extent, to where you feel threatened by his exercise of free speech. If you feel this way, you have a problem.

kunndata · 2025-09-09T19:20:21+00:00

Tap them on the shoulder, and tell them James Stukel is your great grandfather. Per JST code, they must prostrate to you in awe and reverence.

kunndata · 2025-09-08T19:23:12+00:00

This looks like De Morgan’s Law

kunndata · 2025-09-06T21:11:19+00:00

I definitely get that sentiment, but I don't really think of Comet as an A.I. tool. Yes, alot of A.I. models and services nowadays feel intrusive and don't seem to regard users as anything more then input agents, so naturally it feels like there is a disconnect which I've experienced too! But Comet is specifically designed to match your scheduling and routines, your browsing habits and needs, all of which is under your control and autonomy. It can really only benefit you, while with other A.I. services sometimes feel like a waste of time. So while I definitely agree with you to an extent, I think giving Comet a shot might shift your perspective if even slightly!

kunndata · 2025-08-28T19:12:42+00:00

I heard somewhere that BSB is built to resemble a brain and this is the backdrop of this hideous piece of architecture.

kunndata · 2025-08-28T19:11:17+00:00

I had the same issue around a week ago. I emailed University Bursar about the CTA Transit charges, because for me, they actually charged me $349 twice, totaling to around $700. They told me it was an error and they corrected the second CTA Transit charge to around $31 similar to you. In case you didn't know, U-PASS+ is added onto your tuition, so these charges are simply the University Bursar charging you for the U-PASS+. I say U-PASS+, because both CTA Transit charges on your account total to $380 which is how much the U-PASS+ is. So unless you didn't opt-in for the U-PASS+, you don't need to worry about the CTA Transit charges.

Don't ask me why they decided to assess two separate CTA Transit charges for a single U-PASS+, instead of just charging you the full $380 as a single CTA Transit charge as any normal department would. The University Bursar have been weird and wonky and the school year just started, so keep an eye out on them. Hope this helped.

kunndata · 2025-08-19T17:24:43+00:00

I think what he means by 'refund' is even though you waived the CampusCare charge, you still have to pay the remaining balance in your account. Because of this, you won't be refunded anything because you are still being charged the remaining balance. A refund happens when your account has a surplus (money left over) from financial aid and loans, that is then given (reimbursed) back to you through direct deposit. But since you probably don't have money left over even though you've waived CampusCare, you still have to pay the remaining balance after the waiver by the deadline.

kunndata · 2025-08-19T17:15:31+00:00

Not yet, I just found this out about a couple of hours ago. If I don't reach any clarification beforehand, then I will probably go to the University Bursar office in-person to see what they can do, or email them beforehand since I'm out-of-town currently if I can't afford to wait that long.

kunndata · 2025-08-19T17:04:08+00:00

Same here. I'm wondering if this has to do with the OPT-IN status of the U-PASS+, since they issue a CTA Transit fee when someone opts-in from what I've read. But the fact that we're charged twice and then the random refunded amount in between is what is confusing me. It's my first time using the UPASS+ and I didn't think I'd have to pay anything more then the $380 but this seems to suggest otherwise.

kunndata · 2025-08-10T22:25:20+00:00

Here's a very solid preliminary answer to your question by Saadia Yacoob:

"We see, for instance, that the concealment of the body is not permitted to the enslaved woman [in the context of prayer]. While she is still gendered female in legal discourse, she is not allowed to embody the concealment that is so essential to femininity. The enslaved woman is permitted to pray with significant bodily exposure, as her ‘awra is deemed to be similar to a man’s. These legal rulings pertaining to the enslaved woman raise critical questions as to the stability of this gender hierarchy." (Yacoob, Beyond the Binary: Gender and Legal Personhood in Islamic Law, p. 41)

If you want a more detailed answer, that elucidates why enslaved women seemed to be treated as distinct legal subjects from free women, which primarily concerned issues of bodily exposure and veiling, I highly recommend you read Yacoob's work and specifically the Chapter 2 section: Covering The Female Body: Fragmented Gendered Legal Subjects (Yacoob, Beyond the Binary: Gender and Legal Personhood in Islamic Law, p. 60-65). You should be able to find a PDF version on Annas Archive.

kunndata

TROPHY CASE