The scientific journal
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A scientific journal is a serial publication intended to report on the progress of science by reporting new research. There are literally thousands (as high as 50,000) scientific and academic journals published worldwide and many have been published at various points over the past four hundred years. Today, most scientific journals are specialized although older journals such as Nature publish in a range of fields. Most scientific journals contain articles that are peer reviewed to ensure that they meet quality standards of the journal. While scientific journals are similar to trade magazines, their purposes are vastly different. Issues of scientific journals are not read like magazines or newsletters. The publication of research is an essential part of knowledge transfer in science. If results describe experiments or calculations, they often supply enough detail that an independent researcher could repeat the experiment or calculation to verify the results. This is called reproducibility and makes each article part of the permanent scientific record. During the last century there has been an increase of 7% a year in the number of scientific journals published, i.e. doubling of the total number of journals every 10-15 years. The way to bring control to this information is to increase the quality of indexing. Many scientific journals are global; the web plays a role in publishing and exchanging scientific information. Rapid publishing, subject indexing, easy access to articles wherever computers are available are among the reasons for access. Other problems need to be solved, among them the archiving of e-journals and protecting the integrity of information. Sources of knowledge for 400 years The standards of a journal that are used to determine publishability can vary significantly. Some such as Nature, Science, PNAS, and Physical Review Letters have a reputation of publishing articles that mark fundamental breakthroughs in their respective fields. In many fields, an informal hierarchy of scientific journals exists; the most prestigious journal in a field tends to be the most selective in terms of articles it selects for publication. It is also common for journals to have a regional focus, specializing in publishing papers from a particular country or other geographic region. Articles tend to be highly technical, representing the latest theoretical research and experimental results in the field of science. They are often incomprehensible to anyone except the researchers in the field. In some areas this is inevitable given the nature of the content. Usually, rigorous rules of scientific writing are enforced by editors but the rules may vary from journal to journal, especially between journals from different publishers. Types of articlesThere are several types of journal articles; the exact terminology and definitions vary by field and specific journal, but often include:
The formats of journal articles vary, but many follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Articles begin with an abstract or a one-to-four-paragraph summary. The introduction describes the background for the research including a discussion of similar research. The materials and methods or experimental section provides specific details about how the research was conducted. The results and discussion section describes the outcome and implications of the research; the conclusion places the research in context and describes areas for further exploration. In addition to the above, some scientific journals such as Science will include a news section where scientific developments (often involving political issues) are described. These articles are often written by science journalists and not by scientists. In addition, some journals will include an editorial section and a section for letters to the editor. While these are articles published within a journal, in general they are not regarded as scientific journal articles because they have not been peer-reviewed. Electronic publishingSome scholars believe that peer-reviewed paper journals will soon be replaced by electronic formats. One format is the online equivalent of conventional paper journals; another the opinion piece on a blog. In 2010, nearly all scientific journals have, while retaining peer-review, established an electronic presence and moved online. In a similar way, most academic libraries are buying electronic versions of books and purchase paper copies for the most important or most-used titles only. There is usually a publication delay of several months after an article is written and this makes paper journals less than ideal for sharing current research. Many journals now publish final papers as electronic versions as they are ready, without waiting for a complete issue to be complete. In some fields, where even greater speed is desirable, the role of the journal at disseminating current research has been replaced by preprint sites such as http://arXiv.org. Most articles are eventually published in traditional journals which still provide an important role in quality control, archiving papers, and establishing scientific credit. Economics of accessMany scientists and librarians have protested the costs associated with subscribing to scientific journals especially as they see much of the publicly-funded research go to profit large multinational publishing houses. To allow researchers to access their own content many universities purchase site licenses, which permit access to the content from anywhere at the university through appropriate authorization. These are expensive, sometimes more than a print subscription, although this reflects the number of people who will be using the license; print subscriptions reflect the cost for one person to receive the journal whereas site-licenses account for many more. Publications by scholarly societies -- known as not-for-profit-publishers (NFP) -- cost less than commercial publishers but can still be several thousand dollars a year. In general, profits from publishing are used to fund activities of the societies that publish journals or are invested in providing further resources for scientist readers. Despite the transition to electronic publishing, a serials crisis persists. Concerns about the sustainability of business and access models have led to the creation of open access journals. However, professional editors need to be compensated and journals may require donations from foundations to cover costs. Smaller journals do not enjoy the same benefits. The article entitled "Online or Invisible?" used statistical arguments to show that publishing online provides greater dissemination and increases the number of citations an article receives. Papers that are easier to access are used more often and therefore cited more often. CopyrightSee also Copyright FAQs Traditionally, authors were required to sign copyright release forms supplied by journal publishers. Publishers said these were necessary to protect author rights and to coordinate permissions for reprints. Many authors, especially those in the open access movement, found this unethical and have used their influence to remove this requirement. Under other approaches, publishers have permission to edit, print, and distribute the article commercially, but the author(s) retain the other rights themselves. Where publishers retain copyright, most concede certain rights to authors. These include the ability to reuse parts of the paper and allow authors to distribute copies. Some publishers grant authors the right to post and update articles at authors' websites, institutional repositories or free e-print servers. The rise of open access in which the author retains copyright but pays a fee for publication is a response to for-profit models seen across the publishing landscape. See also
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