Pages of History | eResearch

" ... The demise of the paper around 2030 can be attributed to several factors: [1] It was no longer possible to include the evidence in the paper. [2] It was no longer possible to reconstruct a scientific experiment based on a paper alone. [3] Writing for increasingly specialist audiences restricted essential multidisciplinary re-use. [4] Research records needed to be readable by computer to support automation and curation. [5] Single authorship gave way to casts of thousands of collaborators and citizen scientists, leading to failure of the authorship and incentive model. [6]  Quality control models scaled poorly with the increasing volume and 'open access' movement, obscuring innovation. [7] Alternative reporting was found necessary for compliance with increasingly stringent scientific and industrial regulations. [8] Frustrated by inefficiencies in scholarly communication that stifled progress, research funders demanded change..."