Thread

1. upupupandaway · 1790210032 · focus · HN ↗

   Asking earnestly: is ArXiv a valuable resource? I used it few years back when finishing my (late) Master's, but also saw a lot of crap published there (primarily for promotion/visa purposes) so it kind of took the shine out of the service for me.

   1. tristanj · 1790211454 · focus · HN ↗

      The preprint papers on arXiv are like 99% the same as the published versions, except they're free instead of locked behind a multi-thousand dollar/year paywall.

      1. upbeat_general · 1790215316 · focus · HN ↗

         And if there are differences, that is often a good thing! It can mean the author wanted to format something in a particular way that the journal didn't allow.

         1. senderista · 1790223487 · focus · HN ↗

            Often they are extended versions of the journal articles and contain valuable material that had to be cut for space limits.
      2. locknitpicker · 1790267608 · focus · HN ↗

         > The preprint papers on arXiv are like 99% the same as the published versions, except they're free instead of locked behind a multi-thousand dollar/year paywall.

         I don't think you fully understand the problem. It doesn't matter if you can find in arxiv a preprint of an article published on a reputable journal. What matters is that right besides that paper you will find a dozen other papers that can be utter nonsense generated by a poorly calibrated slop factory. You don't find those in papers published in respectable journals which enforce double blind peer review and were filtered for relevance and quality.

         It's that peer review process that creates value and relevance. Otherwise all you have is a glorified file server.

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