The goal for publishing research results is to reach others who are interested in these results. The form of scientific publishing has been the same for centuries and since the internet both the form and the ways to publish research as been questioned.

I am not especially happy with Elsevier when it comes to their strange ways to handle open access and access to reseach but now they have released something called AudioSlides which give the author(s) possibility to explain their article in their own words. Is this the way of the article of the future? I wonder how researchers will react to this, is it of interest or not? Will it take too much time? Will it be just another stressfull moment in a researcher’s daily life?

AudioSlides gives your a possibility to create a five minute oral presentation with slides. These slides will be shown together with your article. A reader has access to both the article and the audio visual persentation. A group of researchers have studied weight loss and made a presentation. Take a look at their example of AudioSlides. Check even more examples of AudioSlides. Or see image below on how it looks. When playing a presentation you can adjust the size to you own preference.

I thought it was interesting. The researcher became a living person instead of being just a name. The benefits are that the researcher has the possibility to explain the meaning and relevance of thier reseach and therefore help readers to judge quicker whether the article is of interest or if they feel that the expectations created by the title of the article are not fulfilled and can move on to other, possibly more relevant, articles.

Elsevier has created a tool for creating AudioSlides. They say it is easy to use. The presentations must represent the contents of the article and they must be in English. The presentations are not peer reviewed which means they may be published right away. All journals within the Elsevier sphere are note providing this option but if you send an article to journals which offers it, they will invite you to make a short oral presentation.

I wonder one more thing (have not tried), will there be problems to view them on smart phones and tablets?

Pieta Eklund

Tip: Martin Borg