Scientific communication at the beginning of the twenty-first century

Abstract

The rapid growth in information technology, computer networks and electronic publishing has created interfaces, links and highways propitiating the flow of both formal and informal information on a global basis. The proliferation of personal computers connected to institutional and world-wide networks has empowered indifidual scholars with rapid access to colleagues, editors, electronic journals, software, and specialised databases located anywhere in the world. The ability of these nodes to interact with each other has led to instant information exchange facilitating all stages of the research process and to the development of "collaboratories" - virtual research laboratories. The question remaining is to what extent technology changes are affecting the basic nature of scholarly communication. Will computer-mediated communication be a mere facilitator rather than a true transformer? To what extent have researchers in different knowledge fields embraced electronic media for different research tasks? Will the isolation of scientists on the periphery soon be a thing of the non-electronic past thanks to their inclusion in global networks? These important issues surrounding the ralationship between information technology and scientific communications practices in a changing world are addressed in the present article.