The scientific article in the age of digitization / by John Mackenzie Owen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mackenzie Owen, J. S.

Series:

Information science and knowledge management ; v. 11.

Information science and knowledge management ; v. 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scientific literature--Electronic publishing.

Scientific literature.

Communication in science.

Research.

Electronic publishing.

Physical Description:

xii, 263 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer, [2007]

Summary:

This book outlines the consequences of digitization for peer-reviewed research articles published in electronic journals. It has often been argued that digitization will revolutionize scientific communication. However, this study shows that this is not the case as far as scientific journals are concerned. Authors make little or no use of the possibilities offered by the digital medium, new procedures for electronic peer review have not replaced traditional peer review, and users do not seem to accept new forms of interaction offered by some electronic journals. The main innovations are to be found at the level of the infrastructures developed by publishers. Scientists themselves appear to be reluctant to change their established patterns of behaviour in formal scientific communication.

The book provides a theoretical background to the history and structure of scientific communication, as well as an in-depth study of electronic journals over the period 1987-2004. It offers a unique approach that questions more conventional ideas about the 'revolutionary' impact of digitization on scientific communication and the innovative role of publishers and academia.

Contents:

1 The birth of the electronic journal 1

2 The electronic journal 'revolution' 5

3 Electronic journals: the issues 8

4 Studying digitization 11

5 Information Science 13

6 Theory 15

8 Level of analysis 19

2 The Development of Scientific Communication 23

1 The historical perspective 24

1.1 The Scientific Revolution 25

1.2 The early impact of printing 27

1.3 The scientific societies 28

1.4 The scientific journal 31

1.5 The development of the electronic journal 34

2 The scientific journal 37

2.1 The structure of the scientific article 38

2.2 The evolution of the scientific article 41

3 The Scientific Communication System 45

1 Scientific communication 45

2 Models and metaphors 47

2.1 The conduit metaphor 48

2.2 The information chain 50

3 Early models 52

4 Transaction space 56

5 Continuum model 60

6 Functions of scientific communication 63

8 From print to digital 71

8.1 The digital information chain 71

8.2 Systems based communication 76

8.3 Institutional repositories 80

9 Innovation of the scientific journal 83

9.1 Scholarly Communication Forums 84

9.2 The innovation chain 85

10 Complexity of scientific communication 89

4 The Digitization of Information Resources 93

2 The concept of digitization 94

3 Networked information 97

4 Dynamic information 101

5 Quasi-intelligent documents 107

6 The functional document 116

7 The 'copy paradox' 118

8 The problem of authenticity 120

9 Reading, creating and control 125

10 Characterizing the digital article 128

10.1 The digital document 128

10.2 The digital scientific article 129

5 The Electronic Journal 1987-2004 131

1 Analytical framework 131

2 Research data 135

3 Results of the survey 138

3.1 Scientific fields and publication year 138

3.2 Submission formats 140

3.3 Publication formats 142

3.4 Multimedia 143

3.5 Data resources 145

3.6 Revision 146

3.7 Response 147

3.8 Customization 149

3.9 External hyperlinks 151

3.10 Functionality 153

3.11 Navigation 154

3.12 Peer review 159

3.13 Copyright 161

3.14 Editorial policies 162

4 Open Access journals 167

5 Evaluation 171

6 The impact of digitization 177

6 Digitization and the Evolution of Scientific Communication 191

1 Explaining development 191

1.1 The closure of scientific communication 191

1.2 An evolutionary view of scientific communication 197

1.3 The diffusion of innovations 201

2 The technology myth 210

3 Transforming scientific communication 214

3.1 The significance of the electronic journal 214

3.2 The illusion of new media 216

3.3 The shadow of the format 219

3.4 The epistemological position 220

4 The impact of digitization on scientific communication 221

4.1 The illusion of a revolution 221

4.2 The dynamics of change 222

5 Final conclusions 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-257) and index.

ISBN:

9781402053351

1402053355

OCLC:

75927297

Publisher Number:

9781402053351