Sharing science
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...print counterparts. While open-access journals will publish the bulk of day-to-day scientific research, she thinks there will always be a place for “research magazines” like Science and Nature. These journals, with a wide breadth of topics and a diverse paying audience, are taking a watchful waiting stance towards open-access publishing. “Switching to open-access now would be the demise of the journal,” says Katrina Kelner, deputy editor of Science. “We would have to do it cautiously and in a responsible way.”

Today, PLoS and BioMed Central look like online versions of traditional journals, but in the future, the whole concept of a journal may change. Scientists could simply deposit their papers in their institutional archival database. As long as they used compatible software to publish it, anyone with an internet connection could use a Google-like search engine to find it. A “journal” might be like a virtual Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval – it would tell readers something about the topic, how it relates to the field, and perhaps most importantly, its general quality, but would not physically exist as a bound collection of research papers. Also like PLoS and BioMed Central journals, the next wave of open-access journals will likely implement peer review in the traditional way. Eventually, publishers and scientists will have to figure out how to use changing technologies to adapt the peer review tradition to journals of the future. In the next decade or two, utilitarian search engines and high-speed connections may replace the traditional glossy pages of the venerable scientific journal.

“I foresee a true knowledge network rather than simple ‘electronic publication’,” says Ginsparg. “Most of the technical pieces are already in place, but the sociological obstacles, as usual, are the most difficult to overcome.” r

photo credit: ryan olson