Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship

["Hamaker, Charles" <cahamake@uncc.edu>]

Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship
James A. Evans
Science 18 July 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5887, pp. 395 - 399
DOI: 10.1126/science.1150473

"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."

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;321/5887/395