The Issues with Journal Issues: Let Journals Be Digital Libraries

TL;DR

The paper critiques traditional journal issues for hindering scientific communication and advocates for transforming journals into digital libraries to better leverage digital technologies for scholarly dissemination.

Contribution

It highlights the limitations of print-era journal issues and proposes a shift towards digital libraries to improve scientific communication.

Findings

Journal issues hinder efficient scientific communication

Digital libraries can better organize scholarly output

Proposes a transition from print-based to digital-only publishing

Abstract

Science depends on a communication system, and today that is largely provided by digital technologies such as the internet and web. Despite that digital technologies provide the infrastructure for that communication system, peer-reviewed journals continue to mimic workflows and processes from the print era. This paper focuses on one artifact from the print era, the journal issue, and describes how this artifact has been detrimental to the communication of science and therefore to science itself. To replace the journal issue, this paper argues that scholarly publishing and journals could more fully embrace digital technologies by creating digital libraries to present and organize scholarly output.