Modularity: the next form of scientific information presentation?

doi:10.1108/EUM0000000007185

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Journal of Documentation

ISSN: 0022-0418

Online from: 1945

Subject Area: Library and Information Studies

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Modularity: the next form of scientific information presentation?

Document Information:
Title:	Modularity: the next form of scientific information presentation?
Author(s):	Joost G. Kircz, (N der Waals-Zeemanlaboratorium, University of Amsterdam, Valckenierstraat 65, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Elsevier Science, PO Box 103, 1000 AC Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Citation:	Joost G. Kircz, (1998) "Modularity: the next form of scientific information presentation?", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 54 Iss: 2, pp.210 - 235
Keywords:	Electronic publishing, Information retrieval, Scientific management
Article type:	Research paper
DOI:	10.1108/EUM0000000007185 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	MCB UP Ltd
Abstract:	The development of electronic publishing heralds a new period in scientific communications. Besides the obvious advantages of an almost endless storage and transport capacity, many new features come to the fore. As each technology finds its own expressions in the ways scientific communications take form, we analyse print on paper scientific articles in order to obtain the necessary ingredients for shaping a new model for electronic communications. A short historical overview shows that the typical form of the present-day linear (essay-type) scientific article is the result of a technological development over the centuries. The various characteristics of print on paper are discussed and the foreseeable changes to a more modular form of communication in an electronic environment are postulated. Subsequently we take the functions of the present-day scientific article vis-à-vis the author and the reader as starting points. We then focus on the process of scientific information transfer and deal essentially with the information consumption by the reader. Different types of information, at present intermingled in the linear article, can be separated and stored in well-defined, cognitive, textual modules. To serve the scientists better in finding their way through the information overload of today, we conclude that the electronic information transfer of the future will be, in essence, a transfer of well-defined, cognitive information modules. In the last part of this article we outline the first steps towards a new heuristic model for such scientific information transfer.