Held on 12 March 2012 at the event "Social Science and Digital Research: Interdisciplinary Insights", convened by the Oxford Internet Institute's Oxford eSocial Science Project (OeSS). Program: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/?id=486

1. Knowledge or Credit?
The (Un)Changing Face of Academic Publishing
from the Philosophical Transactions to Blogging
Cornelius Puschmann
School of Library and Information Science
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Social Science and Digital Research: Interdisciplinary Insights
March 12th 2012, Oxford Internet Institute

2. This Talk
1. Context of this talk
2. A glimpse at the past and present of formal scholarly communication
3. The scholarly blog: Jack of all trades, master of none?
4. (Policy) implications

3. Context
In the broader context of the Internet‘s impact on scholarship, a number
of initiatives have adressed scholarly blogs and their potential role for
academic communication:
• Oxford e-Social Science Project (OeSS, 2005-2012)
• MeRC project “Use and Relevance of Web 2.0 Resources for
Researchers“ (2008-2009)
• Research Consortium “Interactive Science“ (2009-2012, Gießen)
• Junior Researchers Group “Science and the Internet“ (2010-2012,
Düsseldorf)
• my postdoc project (DFG grant): “Networking, visibility, information:
a study of digital genres of scholarly communication and the motives of
their users“ (2012-2015, Berlin)

4. The Past
• Philosophical Transactions established in
1665 by Henry Oldenburg
• consisted of a range of subject areas
and genres of text
• enabled wide(r) dissemination of
knowledge based on discovery than had
previously existed
• allowed inventors to claim the right to
an invention
• dual function:
• spread knowledge
• enable attribution

5. dual aims of scholarly communication
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spreading knowledge building a reputation

6. The Present
massive increase in speed and volume of output:
• ~50 mio. scholarly publications in existence
a heavily concentrated market:
• Reed Elsevier, Springer Science+Business Media and John Wiley & Sons
account for large portion of articles published globally
extreme imbalances:
• key inputs (research articles and peer review) are provided free of charge
• output it sold to intermediaries (libraries), not to end-consumers
• profit margins of up to 40%
changing environments:
• digital publishing
• open access

7. What happened in between?
• institutionalization and professionalization of academia
• corporate intermediaries have taken over publishing
• career success based on publications (“publish or perish“)
• computers and the Internet (duh)
• diversification of scholarly genres:
• formal (monographs, peer-reviewed articles)
• informal (gray literature, interpersonal communication)
How do scholarly blogs fit in here?

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scholarly blog
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9. Some flavors of scholarly blogs
Communicator Target audience Communicative goals
PhD student in English
peers*, self write, remember
literature
postdoctoral researcher in keep in touch,
peers*
information science network,
science enthusiast* experts, lay audience express opinions, educate
free-lance journalist lay audience, advertisers gain visibility

10. Type 1:
The Logbook

11. Type 1:
The Logbook

12. Type 2:
The Notepad

13. Type 2:
The Notepad

14. Type 3:
The Printing Press

15. Type 3:
The Printing Press

16. Observations
• scholarly blogs represent a return to a more diverse and less
utalitarian genre ecology of academic communication
• they cover a range of functions, including notekeeping, academic
publishing and science education
• their flexibility also makes them hard to evaluate from the perspective
of established publishing
• it appears unlikely that they will supplant formal genres of scholarly
communication in the near future, but like the first academic journals,
they are a response to widely-felt needs
• should funders incentivize scholarly blogging -- and if yes, what kind?

17. Thank you for your attention!