Making the unconventional conventional: How blockchain contributes to reshaping scholarly communications

Abstract

Scholarly communication processes, workflows, and the systems supporting this activity are continually being modified and refined by the myriad participants in this ecosystem. Whether change brings 'improvement' is in the eye of the beholder, where that determination varies greatly depending on vantage point and organizational affiliation. For an industry that has evolved over decades, there is no shortage of thought leaders and innovators who have left their marks on how science and scholarship are created, communicated, shared, and distributed. Past innovators have invented technologies, built applications and systems, influenced processes, and applied new business models, all of which provide a fertile foundation from which innovators today may embark to affect meaningful and lasting change. This paper focuses on innovation happening around how blockchain technology, born of cryptocurrency fame, is emerging as a credible change agent for research information broadly and for scholarly publishing. Specifically, we address the promise of this technology for advancing the vision of one innovator in particular, Eugene Garfield, to enable researchers to receive acknowledgement, recognition and formal citation credit for all of their creative works.