VIEW POINT

Innovations in Scholarly Publishing
Evolving Trends in Research Communication in a Digital Age:
Examples from the BMJ
Anita Jain

India Editor, The BMJ(Received for publication on February 18, 2014)(Accepted for publication on June 30, 2014)

As technology and communication evolve rapidly in this digital age, scholarly publishing is also
undergoing a makeover to match the diverse needs of researchers and clinicians. The BMJ has
been at the forefront of innovating the presentation of research to increase its readabillty and usefulness. This article presents some of recent formats used for research communication at the BMJ.
(doi: 10.2302/kjm.2014-0001-RE; Keio J Med 63 (4) : 67–68, December 2014)

Key words: scholarly publishing, science communication, journals“To your heart be true
An egg with your morning kiss
May help not harm you”

ers; broadly put, that of researchers and clinicians. Researchers tend to prefer an in-depth account of the study
with adequate detail to appraise it or to replicate the experiment described, and increasingly to include it in asystematic review. On the other hand, clinicians prefer
succinct and accurate messages that may directly guidedecision-making at the point of care.
To plough the middle ground and cater to these diverse
needs of its readers, in 1999 the BMJ adopted a processlabeled ELPS, which stands for “electronic long, paper
short.” This meant the full research paper was published
online with an abridged version in the print journal.4 A
decade later, the shorter print version was further packaged in the format of an evidence abstract, called BMJ
pico, to increase readability and usefulness of research5.
“Pico,” meaning small (10−12 in SI units), also stands forthe widely used critical appraisal tool PICO (population, intervention or exposure, comparison, outcomes).
This one-page format of the research paper essentiallycomprises bite-sized information on the research question and the answer and provides a context of “what isknown and what this study adds” to the literature on thetopic. Balancing accuracy, brevity, and comprehensiveness, BMJ pico also highlights the role of chance, bias,and confounding in the study design, and cautions readers on potential harms and generalizability. Completing

Wendy-Jane Walton1
Who would have imagined that the findings of a metaanalysis that “a higher consumption of eggs is not associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease orstroke” could be communicated in so poetic a manner?2
Indeed, last Christmas the BMJ attempted to push theboundaries of communicating science a little further.
Embracing a Japanese twist, we invited readers to put on
their creative hats and convey findings of research articles through haikus, rendered in English in three lines offive, seven, and five syllables.3
Medical research has grown exponentially in recenttimes, contributing to an ever-increasing body of scientific literature. Technology has simultaneously kept
pace, providing doctors access to this information at theirfingertips through the internet on smartphones and tablet computers. Accordingly, communication of research
has had to evolve to match consumption in this fast-foodworld: quick, simple, and easy-to-digest.
One of the challenges for medical journals is to progressively address contrasting needs of authors and read-Reprint requests to: Jain Anita, India Editor, The BMJ, E-mail: ajain@bmj.com
Copyright © 2014 by The Keio Journal of Medicine
6768Jain A: Innovations in Scholarly Publishing Evolving Trends in Research Communication in a Digital Age: Examples from the BMJ

it, a summary figure or table provides a snapshot of therelative risks and odds ratios of the main findings of thestudy. Fundamentally, BMJ pico serves as an “evidencebased medicine tool” providing busy clinicians justenough information to evaluate the validity and applicability of research findings to their practice context.
The overarching ambition of innovation in scholarly
publishing is to expand the reach of research to end-users
so it is customized to their diverse needs and presented
in a simple and engaging way. Keeping in tune with thelatitude offered by digital media, a recent initiative at theBMJ is to invite authors to submit video abstracts to accompany research papers on bmj.com that are accessible
via BMJ multimedia (www.bmj.com/multimedia) andYouTube (www.youtube.com/user/BMJmedia) channels.6
Ranging from a peek into a specialist mental health unit
for the elderly,7 the challenging circumstances of delivering home-based HIV counseling and testing in rural
South Africa,8 and an audio-visual portrayal of the impact on mortality of change in Cuba’s food and transport
policies,9 video abstracts enable a vibrant presentation ofan otherwise dry and verbose research paper. They afford researchers a face and a voice, with the opportunity
to talk about their research study. Authors may present
the context that led to the research question, discuss how
the study was operationalized, use fancy animation andinfographics to showcase the main findings, and bringout their application to health policy and clinical practice.
Viewers get a glimpse of the settings in which the study
was conducted and can listen to the author break down acomplex study into simpler bits while directing them tothe main aspects of the study.
As social media become a prime platform for sharing
and discussing research, video abstracts offer a format
that is amenable to sharing via Facebook, Twitter, andblogs, thereby increasing penetration of research to awider audience. Indeed, with shifting preferences in bothsupply and demand, research communication is fast moving away from the rigid framework of scholarly publishing toward more flexible and embracing outlets afforded
through forms such as academic blogging, videos, andpodcasts.10
Conforming to principles laid down by the World
Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki for
ethical research,11 of prime importance is that results ofresearch on human subjects be published or made publicly available. While there is a concurrent emphasis on
ensuring completeness and accuracy of research reports,
the WMA neither discourages nor advocates a particular
medium or format of communication. The vision is for research to be shared as widely as possible to stimulate dis-course and debate and, consequently, to influence medical progress. Reflecting this, measurement of the value ofscholarly publishing is increasingly moving away fromthe conventional and skewed measure of journal impact
factor toward ratings such as altmetrics that capture article-level metrics on the attention an article is getting onsocial media platforms, mainstream news outlets, blogs,and other sources.
As has been the trend, technology and changing preferences will shape scientific communication of the future.
There is no turning the tide now.
References
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