Warker, Jill A.; Ye Xu; Gary S. Dell; and Cynthia Fisher. «Speech errors reflect the phonotactic constraints in recently spoken syllables, but not in recently heard syllables». Cognition 112.1 (2009). 81-96. Article of the Future version <http://articleofthefuture.com/S0010027709000730/> 24 January 2014.

This reports on four experiments in learning to speak foreign syllables, testing for whether hearing and speaking influences each other. In terms of new features, this article is the least developed in the Article of the Future collection, and I expect it is one of the earliest prototypes.

Les videre →

Langus, Alan and Marina Nespor. «Cognitive systems struggling for word order.» Cognitive Psychology 60.4 (2010). 291-318. Article of the future version. <http://articleofthefuture.com/S0010028510000058/> 23 January 2014

This paper reports on four experiments with Italian and Turkish speakers, trying to establish where in a sentence it is natural to put the verb. It opens with a very clear Research highlights section, but it also includes a composite image that is nothing but decoration. Three-quarters of the image is a montage of people talking, the last quarter is a intelligible reproduction of five charts. Les videre →

Wibowo, Rahmat; Leigh Aldous; Sarah E. Ward Jones and Richard G. Compton. «The electrode potentials of the Group I alkali metals in the ionic liquid N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide». Chemical Physics Letters 492.4-6 (2010). 276-80. Article of the Future version. <http://articleofthefuture.com/S0009261410006160/>

The authors of this article have measured the electrode potentions of five of the Group I alkali metals in a certain solution, and compared the results to a simulation equation.

All the features in this «future» version have been discussed before:

Les videre →

Liu, Ying, et.al. «Improvement of the anodic bioelectrocatalytic activity of mixed culture biofilms by a simple consecutive electrochemical selection procedure.» Biosensors and Bioelectronics 24.1 (2008). 1006-11. Article of the Future version. <www.articleofthefuture.com/S0956566308004417/>

Ying et.al. have developed a novel method for growing electrically active biofilms from wastewater, biofilms which can be used in fuel cells.

The introduction sums up quite a few earlier works, and paints a thorough picture of the state of current research. It then ends in a paragraph that promises great results, sounding almost like a salesman’s praise for his products:

[…]We show that the selection and biofilm acclimatization procedure can be simplified by using a consecutive, purely electrochemical selection process, by which, starting from a primary, wastewater based mixed culture biofilm, an efficient electroactive biofilm with superior performance can be established within a considerably reduced period of time and with low experimental efforts. […]

The methodology section is very detailed, with supplier and trading name for every chemical and piece of machinery used in the complex experiments.

Elsevier’s Article of the Future designers have put their effort into creating six interactive statistical charts for this article. In the first, rolling over a data point will yield the value on the x and y-axes. Hardly a revolutionary innovation, as the numbers could be printed on the chart. In some other charts, the user can choose the scale on the axes, and yet others change the colours of series (called «showing just one series») in the chart.

Information on chemical compounds mentioned in the article can be looked up in the right sidebar by hyperlinks, as can two photos of the experimental setup.

Equations are numbered in the article, but not linked to the sidebar in the way they were in the math articles.

As this article frequently references figures printed early in the article, it is very convenient for the reader to be able to call them up in the right sidebar.

Djogbénou, Luc, et.al. «Malaria vectors in the Republic of Benin: Distribution of species and molecular forms of the Anopheles gambiae complex. Acta Tropica 114.2 (2010). 116-122. Article of the Future version. <http://www.articleofthefuture.com/S0001706X1000029X/>. 21  January 2014.

Research highlights in the form of six bullet points and a graph.

Djogbénou and his colleagues have sampled more than 2000 malaria moskitos from 30 sites in Benin, and used microscopic and molecular techniques to determine their species and DNA variation. While the article is rather short (7 pages in print), the research task is large. The main results are given in the form of a table. This follows the IMRaD structure with a relatively long Discussion section.

Les videre →

Mulvenna, Jason, et.al. «Exposed proteins of the Schistosoma japonicum tegument.» International Journal for Parasitology 40.5 (2010). Article of the future version. <http://www.articleofthefuture.com/S0020751909003920/> 20 January, 2014.

Mulvenna and his colleagues have investigated the proteins in the skin of a tiny worm that can live inside the human body and causes illness and death in thousands of people every year. This is experimental science, and the article follows the IMRAD structure.

As with many Articles of the Future, there is a research highlights section before the abstract, and the layout and features are largely the same as in the other expermiental articles. Two features stand out in this article: Experiment flowcharts and links to a protein database. Les videre →

Stephenson, M.H., et.al. Abrupt environmental and climatic change during the deposition of the early permian haushi limestone, Oman (Article of the Future, <http://www.articleofthefuture.com/S0031018208004690/>, first published in Paleography, Paleoclimatology, Palaeoecology 270.1, 1-18)

Like other «Articles of the future», this article begins with both research highlights in the form of bullet points and an abstract. In this case the abstract is more detailed than the research highlights, and both include hyperlinks that can make a timeline or the Gharif formation of Oman’s record in the Paleobiology database appear in the right sidebar. The research highlights also include an animated figure, the print from some kind of analysis I am not familiar with.

After a short introduction follows a longer section on Geological Setting. This sums up much prior work on paleogeography in the area, and features a large map of continental plates, as well as a map of where core drillings were made and two stratigraphies. The map can be swapped with an «interactive» Google map of the places.

The disciplines I am most familiar with emphasize the discussion of research methods, and it was new to me to see an article that just states that «the methods used […] are given by» three earlier articles cited. This is just an overview, however, and more details on method is given in the following four subsections, where the methods and results from different disciplines are exposed in detail. Closer and closer photographs and interpretations makes up the sequence in this section. From quantitative analysis of whole samples to cross sections, further to single pollen particles, and, finally, electromicroscopy of isotopes.

Different kinds of species found in the core samples are listed in section 3.3 on Palynology. Each taxa is hyperlinked to a lookup in the Paleobiology database and the brachiopod photo collection, which appears in the right sidebar. This is rather impressive to me, as it provides lots of extra information. I can’t say whether it would impress a palynologist, though.

Section 4 is the discussion, which interprets the details from section 3 to paint a large picture of how the geology and climate developed in the area studied.

This article bases very much of its arguent on visuals, it contains fifteen figures and plates, and the references «see figure n» appears frequently. Several «plates» of photographs from the microscopy are given as examples, while figures show the relation between the samples studied. Just clicking on the reference and having the right illustration appear in the right sidebar independent of the text is very convenient. This convenience is diminished, however, in plate I, where eight figures are labeled a-h, and I have to read the long caption to understand which represent clusters 1-7 mentioned in the text.

All the images are also in the print version of the article, so the only visual advantage of the Article of the future is the ability to view them independent of the running text. The print publication, on the other hand, presents the images much larger and more detailed, so anyone really interested in this research would like to have a large computer monitor and download full-resolution imagery to get the same information on the web.

The text is also strewn with hyperlinks to the table of geologcial periods. I suspect these are put in automatically, and I would guess researchers within this disciplines know these periods by heart, so it seems less interesting.

«Supervised ranking in the weka environment» by Stijn Lievens and Bernard De Baets is an adaptation of a paper printed in Information Sciences 129.6 into an «article of the future».

Elsevier experiments with different kinds of abstracts. This article has a «research highlights» section with four bullet points first, before a very short abstract.

The structure is very clear, with four parts: Problem description, Methods, Implementation of the Propositionsl, and Use of the Software. Only after the problem description, which is quite long, is the outline of the paper described.

In the right column (the «sidebar», one can view article information, knowledge tree (a conception I don’t understand the point with), author information, figures, tables, data repositories, data set, formulas, propositions, software enviroment, and references.

The left column contains an article overview with thumbnails of three figures and a table.
In section three, an algorithm is described. I find it interesting that the algorithm is discussed and explained before it is presented. A lot of information can be called up in the right column to be referenced next to the running text, such as figures, tables, formulas, and propositions. It would seem logical to be able to view the algorithm in there too, next to the description of it in section 3.1.

The style changes notably in section 4. Math and formulas are no more, instead there is a plain-language description of the software package made by the methods outlined earlier.