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Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies

In this article, we study the development of the STS journal article format since the 1980s. Our analysis is based on quantitative data that suggest that the diversity of various journal publication types has diminished over the past four decades, while the format of research articles has become inc...

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Autores principales: Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang, Birch, Kean, van Leeuwen, Thed, Amuchastegui, Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9483190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35903817
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03063127221110623
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author Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang
Birch, Kean
van Leeuwen, Thed
Amuchastegui, Maria
author_facet Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang
Birch, Kean
van Leeuwen, Thed
Amuchastegui, Maria
author_sort Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang
collection PubMed
description In this article, we study the development of the STS journal article format since the 1980s. Our analysis is based on quantitative data that suggest that the diversity of various journal publication types has diminished over the past four decades, while the format of research articles has become increasingly typified. We contextualize these historical shifts in qualitative terms, drawing on a set of 76 interviews with STS scholars and other stakeholders in scholarly publishing. Here, we first portray the STS publication culture of the 1980s and early 1990s. We then contrast this with an analysis of publishing practices today, which are characterized by a much more structured research process that is largely organized around the production of typified journal articles. Whereas earlier studies have often emphasized the importance of rhetorical persuasion strategies as drivers in the development of scholarly communication formats, our analysis highlights a complementary and historically novel set of shaping factors, namely, increasingly quantified research (self-)assessment practices in the context of a projectification of academic life. We argue that reliance on a highly structured publication format is a distinct strategy for making STS scholarship ‘doable’ in the sense of facilitating the planning ability and daily conduct of research across a variety of levels – including the writing process, collaboration with peers, attracting funding, and interaction with journals. We conclude by reflecting on the advantages and downsides of the typification of journal articles for STS.
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spelling pubmed-94831902022-09-20 Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang Birch, Kean van Leeuwen, Thed Amuchastegui, Maria Soc Stud Sci Articles In this article, we study the development of the STS journal article format since the 1980s. Our analysis is based on quantitative data that suggest that the diversity of various journal publication types has diminished over the past four decades, while the format of research articles has become increasingly typified. We contextualize these historical shifts in qualitative terms, drawing on a set of 76 interviews with STS scholars and other stakeholders in scholarly publishing. Here, we first portray the STS publication culture of the 1980s and early 1990s. We then contrast this with an analysis of publishing practices today, which are characterized by a much more structured research process that is largely organized around the production of typified journal articles. Whereas earlier studies have often emphasized the importance of rhetorical persuasion strategies as drivers in the development of scholarly communication formats, our analysis highlights a complementary and historically novel set of shaping factors, namely, increasingly quantified research (self-)assessment practices in the context of a projectification of academic life. We argue that reliance on a highly structured publication format is a distinct strategy for making STS scholarship ‘doable’ in the sense of facilitating the planning ability and daily conduct of research across a variety of levels – including the writing process, collaboration with peers, attracting funding, and interaction with journals. We conclude by reflecting on the advantages and downsides of the typification of journal articles for STS. SAGE Publications 2022-07-28 2022-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9483190/ /pubmed/35903817 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03063127221110623 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang
Birch, Kean
van Leeuwen, Thed
Amuchastegui, Maria
Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
title Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
title_full Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
title_fullStr Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
title_full_unstemmed Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
title_short Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
title_sort changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9483190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35903817
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03063127221110623
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