Electronic publication and the narrowing of science and scholarship.

Full Abstract

Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled. But because they are used differently than print-scientists and scholars tend to search electronically and follow hyperlinks rather than browse or peruse-electronically available journals may portend an ironic change for science. Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005), and online availability (1998 to 2005), I show that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and articles were cited, and more of those citations were to fewer journals and articles. The forced browsing of print archives may have stretched scientists and scholars to anchor findings deeply into past and present scholarship. Searching online is more efficient and following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon.

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Author information

Author/s: Evans, James A (JA);

Affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL60615, USA. jevans@uchicago.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.) (Science), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 321 (issue 5887) : pp 395-9

Dates: Created 2008/07/18; Completed 2008/07/30;

PMID: 18635800, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Science. 2008 Jul 18;321(5887):329. (PMID: 18635769)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Abstracting and Indexing as Topic
Bibliometrics
Information Storage and Retrieval - statistics & numerical data
Internet

Libraries
Libraries, Digital
Periodicals as Topic - statistics & numerical data
Publishing - statistics & numerical data

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