The Internet has changed scientific publishing in many ways, some good and some bad. No one would deny that it is easier to find papers on a particular subject than ever before. Looking up papers in Index Medicus or by browsing Current Contents has long been replaced by online searches on Medline or even Google Scholar. This has not necessarily improved our understanding of the literature, but it certainly provides a quick way to feel up to date.
In some ways, the Internet has even streamlined the submission of manuscripts, although formatting papers correctly still takes an enormous amount of time and the speed of paper review and acceptance doesn’t seem to budge. I still find myself bugging editors after waiting 6–8 weeks with no response—about the same as 20 years ago. Still, overall, I think most scientists feel that the Internet has improved scientific publishing, especially by giving rise ...
