My discussions with researchers and my own reading of scientific work have convinced me that the main problem is how much researchers have to publish in order to be ranked highly.<p>It leads to a huge number of rehashed, low quality papers. Some of the issues on the publishing side could be solved simply by reducing the amount of rubish that hits the system.<p>And the second problem I see is not a technology issue either. It's that, at least in europe, academic research is funded by the public. In spite of that, the work of scientists is given away to publishers who hold the entire system hostage. Publishers are in effect running an elaborate scheme to blackmail the tax payer into paying twice for the same work without adding any value themselves. The peer reviewers are funded by the tax payer as well.<p>If universities did what other employers do, which is to take ownership of what their employees produce and manage it properly, access to scientific work could be much improved.