I like your idea. The easiest way to implement this would be articles on the wiki, this would offer everything except a down and up vote option.
P.S. I am unfamiliar with tagging on LW articles (having not written one before), should I add a tag/tags?
We don't use them as much as we should. This is part of our problem of poor indexing of useful articles not part of any sequence. I suggest you add the tag "scholarship".
Why aren't we systematically pooling many excellent and relevant academic articles yet?
I'm well aware of the current thread on the best textbooks for any subject, but why only share "the best" "textbooks"? I understand the desire for vetted quality, but I think we're missing an awesome opportunity here. I, for one, have a long (to me) list of fascinating academic articles I'm probably not going to read, but which I think other LessWrongers might very much like to be pointed to. For example:
We could have a database of some kind. And it could include articles that have already been well-spread here, like the seminal Kahneman & Tversky papers. Or the Singularity Institute's work and related work, such as Asimov's 3 laws of robotics and machine meta-ethics (S.L. Anderson), or the Transhumanist FAQ (Nick Bostrom).
I propose that we do so, and that we seek a balance between (a) quality and quantity and (b) organization (into topics) and simply adding, but that we also not worry too much about that right now and just start something. I envision adding article entries to some kind of simple database with (i) the bibliographic information, (ii) a link to a non-gated pdf if possible, (iii) a brief description detailing why it's bound to be very interesting to some LessWrongers, and (iv) a vote-up/down mechanism to allow fellow LessWrongers to agree that 'yes, this article title+description does seem exceptionally interesting'.
Main issue: determining the best way to share articles with each other, after determining that it's something we'd like to do.
P.S. I am unfamiliar with tagging on LW articles (having not written one before), should I add a tag/tags?