Notes from aTime-TravelingPublisher in Backto the Future

An Academic presentation byDr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations, PubricaGroup:  www.pubrica.comEmail: sales@pubrica.com

Outline

Today's Discussion

IN BRIEF

INTRODUCTION

THE FIRST JOURNAL

WHAT WOULD OLDENBURG HAVE THOUGHT?

BACK TO THE (RESEARCH) FUTURE

CONCLUSION

Scientific journal editors are important gatekeepers for advancing careers anddisseminating information, but they are considerably less well-known than

scientific writers and readers. This issue of Centaurus explores the reasons foreditorship and the methods, tactics, and resources required to carry it outsuccessfully, using a range of methodological approaches. It invites us to

consider how editors, editing, and editorship have evolved over two centuriesand across countries.

Academic journals are widely acknowledged as critical to the creationand dissemination of information and the development of academicreputations; nevertheless, it is not just the journals that count, but alsothe editorial procedures of those publications.

As a result, academic researchers learn early on in their careers todistinguish between the editorial practices of academic journals andthose of other magazines, reviews, and periodicals: contributions topeer-reviewed academic journals take pride of place on the CV,publication list, or grant application, while other forms of authorshipare relegated to the “other” category(1).

INTRODUCTION

Historians have seen the interchange of science and technologythrough the lens of science’s application to technology.

However, Carnot claims that he could not have composed his famousmasterwork without the steam engine.

He claims that the Philosophical Transactions do not completelyprovide the key to the Royal Society’s early attitude.

Initially, it was planned as a private business, but it gradually becamea part of society (2).

THE FIRST JOURNAL

Henry Oldenburg (1619–5 September 1677) was a Germanphilosopher who is regarded as one of Europe’s finest early modernscientific intelligencers.

He began his profession as a tutor and travelled extensively aroundEurope, meeting several educated persons and expanding his vastnetwork of connections.

Oldenburg was an obvious option for the position of socialsecretary.

WHAT WOULD OLDENBURG HAVETHOUGHT?

Society’s correspondence was entrusted to him because of his wideacquaintance among Europe’s intellectuals and his abilities and aptitudeas a linguist.

The society’s members were mostly university professors, medicaldoctors, and interested individuals.

Members of the society began gathering regularly to address issues.

The Royal Society used to compensate him for his secretarial work, but itwasn’t enough, and he had to out a living in an unsafe financial condition.In 1665, Oldenburg proposed to the Royal Society proposing to publish aprinted version of the society’s scientific communications.

Although this new venture was intended to promote the Royal Society’sscientific activity by saving him the time and effort of copying the samenews to all of the society’s members in half a dozen languages, hisprimary motivation was purely financial: he believed that this venturewould provide him with a decent living.

The Philosophical Transactions was created as a result of this (3).

Then he discovered that the Royal Society had founded PhilosophicalTransactions.

He was amazed that publishers were still doing exactly what he hadintended for his magazine more than 350 years later.

But he soon recognized that a publisher or a magazine was no longernecessary for three of the four tasks.

Registration: The world no longer needs journals to ensure that aresearch paper was registered, thanks to DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers)or other types of UIDs (Unique Identifiers).

Journals would be unnecessary if there were any other sorts of universalrepository for publications.

Distribution: With open access, dissemination would be automated, andno one would be required to distribute the articles.

Certification was still as vital as it had always been.

Again, peer review was required, but the difficulty was that more articleswere being published than the specialists could process, making itsluggish and difficult to find high-quality research.

Researchers will be able to register their workautomatically in the future by ‘depositing’ (ratherthan submitting) their ‘Research Objects.’ They willadd procedures and techniques when they are readyand then share the results.

They can exchange films, interactive visuals,comments, notes, short reports, peer reviews, datasets, and any other object related to their work.

BACK TO THE (RESEARCH)FUTURE

Many print-based paradigms will be completely outdated in 20 years.Traditional journals may combine and be replaced by content sets basedon themes and subjects (1).

There were national differences in editorship acrossEurope in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

National differences have diminished as scientificediting has become more professionalized,academicized, and internationalized, yet they havenot (yet) vanished.

Moreover, academic infrastructures changedsubstantially across Europe over most of the periodcovered by this special issue, implying that theincentives of editorship and the methods andresources required to carry it out successfullydiffered.

CONCLUSION

We hope that the offerings in this issue will prompt a greater focus onthose tactics, their regional variations, and how they have evolved.

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