Keeping up with the scientific literature is a harmful myth: a thread 1/17

I'm a plant ecologist. My 'home' journal is probably @JEcology, published by @BritishEcolSoc. I've been a subscriber for over 20 years and my office holds the complete print run for that period (of which more below). 2/17

The January issue contains 595 pages of content, some of which I really ought to read. Much of the rest would be fun and informative. It wouldn't even count as 'reading widely', as we often advise post-grads, because it should all be home territory. 3/17

Even if I were very selective in which articles I read, and if I 'read' them in the cursory way we actually look at papers, it would take me a full working day to get through the entire issue. 4/17

There are some papers, like this one by Eduardo Soares Calixto, that I want to read carefully and in full. I remember seeing his poster at #BES19 and it's very cool work. 5/17 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.13457

There are six issues of @JEcology a year, so if I were to read every one at this level I would spend that many days on this journal alone. Time well spent, I'm sure, but is it time that I actually have? 6/17

I'm paid to work for something like 46 weeks a year and I'd like to actually take holidays in some of the remainder. That means 46*5 = 225 days. I'm not employed to sit around reading all day either. 7/17

There are 169 ecology journals listed in ISI. Not all are relevant to what I do, but at least several dozen are. I'd like to be following Ecology, @Biotropica, @NatureEcoEvo and a bunch of others. There just isn't the time. 8/17

Back to print journals. The one great advantage of receiving a hard copy of @JEcology in the post, that I paid real money for, was that I felt compelled to read it. This usually happened on the bus, between meetings, on journeys, or other spare moments. 9/17

Now @JEcology is digital only I can access it on my phone, tablet or computer any time I like, which is great... but I honestly don't want more screen time in my life. It ceases to be a relaxing break. 10/17

Maybe this is a generational thing, and I know I'm among the last of the dinosaurs, but the likelihood that I will read an issue of @JEcology has gone down, despite the fact that in principle it's more accessible. 11/17

We read the literature differently now, finding papers through searches and paying little attention to where they're published. Journals are curators of content but, apart from the editors, how many people follow the output of more than a handful? 12/17

This sensation of being overwhelmed by information is nothing new --- people have been saying the same since the arrival of print media. Werner Rolevinck was making the same point in the 1400s! 13/17

We should probably stop claiming that it's an imperative to read broadly though, especially for our students. Those chance encounters with useful papers in hard copies on library shelves simply don't happen any more. 14/17

In the last 20 years we've gained something - masses of accessible science at our fingertips - but we've also lost that tactile, physical connection with the literature that makes it a real interactive object. 15/17

Will communities continue to form around journals, and will people identify with them? I'd be interested to hear other perspectives, particularly from younger researchers who have learnt to work within this new system. 16/17

But for now I think we should stop telling ourselves, or our students, that keeping up with the literature is either desirable or achievable. You might as well try to bail the sea. 17/17