Introduction

A decade ago, research was published on paper. Today, libraries and readers rely mostly on electronic formats. According to a study carried out for the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, 75% of academic journals were online in 2003, increasing to 90% in 2005 (Cox and Cox).

Given the current move from ink to pixels, it seems time to ask what online publishing does to the main genres of research publishing: the scientific or scholarly paper, and the monograph. In this hypertext "paper" we will look at the short formats, the research paper or article, and ask whether we can see a change in how research is written.

History shows that the current standard forms of research articles have evolved with the research fields and the corresponding research journals. New technology allows for other formats, playing with multimedia, links, and forms that are longer or shorter than standard research papers. My own experience is that many publications are willing to accept experimental writing, especially if it seems to remediate what is perceived as shortcomings of journals. In a longer perspective, it may be that many articles will be replaced with up-to-date reports and online discussions.