The Meandering Evolution of Scholarly Communication

Led by: Hussein Suleman

Scholarly communication is about the various processes related to research outputs that facilitate communication within academic communities. In the pre-Internet era, this was accomplished using the same infrastructure as that for paper-based books and magazines. But online communication has changed all aspects of scholarly communication. This talk will discuss intended and unintended major changes in technology and society related to publishing and research.
How authors prepare manuscripts has evolved because of the availability of advanced end-user type-setting tools. Digital repositories have removed the need for libraries to store many bookshelves of journal where only a small portion are consulted. Search tools and reference managers make it easy to locate and organise literature. Data repositories allow researchers to archive source and processed datasets beyond the lifetime of the research, thus enabling secondary and further analyses. Thesis repositories store and preserve the final products of research done by Masters and Doctoral candidates.
These technologies have evolved alongside the Open Access movement that promotes barrier-free access to knowledge products for everyone. It can be argued that the modern era researcher needs to be aware of both the technology and the policies that impact the conduct of research. The historical context is useful for an appreciation of why electronic scholarship works in the way it does. It also prepares us for a future where the lines between research and its publication are not as clear. Peer review too is changing, as is the question of who owns what parts of research outputs. And then we have AI to contend with in every aspect of the research process. Bringing all of this together, we will explore the future of research in this context of the evolution of scholarly communication.