Is it Time to Change Scholarly Publishing as we know it?

Scholarly journals evolved in a print world where they had to be selective and do a lot of review and filtering up front, because of physical limitations on how much they could publish and distribute. In a digital world, these constraints are no longer necessary, opening up space for innovation and improvements. Nowhere is this clearer than in the recent growth of preprints, where authors take control of when to share their work. But in a world where preprints are commonplace, what is the role of the journal? eLife, a not-for-profit, peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal for the biomedical and life sciences, has been exploring this question, and recently announced new changes to its model to focus on detailed preprint assessment instead of binary accept/reject decisions. This lead to a great deal of discussion in the community about how journals could or should work, and the pros and cons of this kind of model for researchers, research assessment, and science more broadly. 

Damian Pattinson, Executive Director of eLife, will visit the Libraries on Monday March 20, and will join members of the NC State community to explain the new eLife model, what it aims to do, and to engage us in conversation about it. Come with your questions and ideas, and learn more about a potential new model for scholarly journal publishing. No registration is required. 

This event will take place in the Faculty Seminar 2312N at D. H. Hill Jr. Library (Second Floor, West Wing). This room is located inside the Faculty Research Commons. Wolfpack One Card required for entry.