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In:Science Communication on the Internet: Old genres meet new genres
Edited by María José Luzón and Carmen Pérez-Llantada
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 308] 2019
► pp. 19–40

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Chapter 2
At the frontlines of the online scientific article

Published online: 4 December 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.308.02har
Abstract
Inaugurated in 1665, the scientific journal article slowly evolved an elaborate set of discourse norms related to style, presentation features like references and figures, and argument. With the recent “webification” of the scientific literature, these norms have remained in place while the digital opportunities afforded by webification have supplemented and enhanced some of them. Leading the way on these fronts has been a set of digital-only scientific journals published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS) – founded in 2000 and now one of the major digital innovators in scientific publishing. This chapter focuses on the substantive changes PLOS and a few other publishers have brought to the genre of both the scientific article and journal, and speculates on what additional changes in the genre might be expected in the coming decades.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Origin and evolution of the print scientific article
  • 3.Current state of the digital scientific article
  • 4.Future of the digital scientific article
    • 4.1State-of-the-art PLOS article
      • 4.1.1Front matter
      • 4.1.2Main text
      • 4.1.3Supporting information
    • 4.2Enhanced PLOS articles
  • 5.Other innovations possible for the future scientific article
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • References
References (33)
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2025. The Controversy behind the Controversies: Scientific Discourse in the Twenty-First Century. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 55:3 ► pp. 223 ff. DOI logo
Rowley-Jolivet, Elizabeth & Shirley Carter-Thomas
2023. Research goes digital: A challenge for genre analysis?. ASp 84 ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Herman, Eti, John Akeroyd, Gaelle Bequet, David Nicholas & Anthony Watkinson
2020. The changed – and changing – landscape of serials publishing: Review of the literature on emerging models. Learned Publishing 33:3 ► pp. 213 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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