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What’s a Journal For? This debate has been raging ever since preprint servers have been launched way back to 1991! Certainly, throughout my current submission of a journal article, one of many questions requested was whether or not the article was already deposited in such a preprint server (in a constructive sense, and never one excluding additional submission progress). Since my earlier remark on this theme was made greater than three years in the past, I believed I would replace it.
I would begin with the remark that some assume the idea of a journal actually contains three separate parts (as much as eight have been instructed); the story or narrative being advised, the information on which that story is predicated and the citations or bibliography which set the context of the story. The latter two parts have each developed their very own publishing fashions; the information in a repository and accompanied by wealthy metadata which supplies at the very least among the context and citations which have their personal mannequin. Article metadata additionally consists of its personal citations serving to to put the information right into a wider context or “larger image” as expressed by a information graph,[1] which even CAS Scifinder will now reveal primarily based in your particular search!‡. Such metadata can be now usually a element of the general metadata related to journal articles. The info element is being accompanied by in depth work to boost the accompanying metadata fashions[2] and we would anticipate speedy progress to be made right here within the close to future.
So once more to ask “what’s a journal for” if two of its important parts have their very own publishing fashions? The story will all the time have an vital position to play and peer assessment of that story† will all the time be an vital side of the journal – certainly maybe an important side. So ought to we focus in our consideration on this? I famous that in 2017, a courageous new experiment claiming “Open entry • Publication cost free • Public peer assessment • Wikipedia-integrated” of which public peer assessment was an vital element, has amassed comparatively few publications since. I additionally famous an article[3] through which the reviewers (however not their critiques) are clearly indicated. This idea too has not made a lot headway. Will issues change sooner or later? Some assume that they’ve too, or the complete idea of scientific publishing will certainly fragment into many various fashions and now not absolutely serve its function.
‡I can’t resist together with my very own information graph right here, which reveals properly the impacts of among the work I’ve been related to, as represented by the followers on the surface of the central graph.
†Though a significant element of many peer critiques has the deal with the information and (lacking) citations.
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