The Evolution of Medical Publications in the Digital Age: Where Are We Heading?
Authors: Gokool Nichola , Vinding Martin , Sheppard David , Martin Dean , Langford Chris , Trevorrow Paul 
Published: September 2020

Background: Technological advances enabling digitally enhanced scientific article content and social media have changed the consumption and production models of the medical publication landscape in recent years. This study investigates how key publication stakeholders perceive the latest digital developments as medical publications adapt to this new, fast-paced environment. Methods: A 2-phase study, comprising a quantitative online survey and qualitative telephone interviews, assessed the current status and anticipated influence of social media and enhanced digital content on the consumption of scientific knowledge. The target audience was publication stakeholders, although any individual could complete the online survey. Results were analyzed descriptively.Results: The online survey was completed by 172 respondents aged &gt;18 years, predominantly located in the United States (31.4%) and the United Kingdom (19.2%). The survey population primarily comprised published authors (69.2%) and researchers (29.3%). Enhanced digital content was rated as important by the respondents; visual content, such as 1-paragraph or 1-screen summaries (rated by 64.1% and 47.0%, respectively), and visual summaries or infographics (50.5%) were identified as preferred enhanced digital formats and are anticipated to become more so in 5 years’ time (infographics: 77.0%; 1-paragraph overview: 66.0%; 1-screen summary: 59.8%). Traditional article formats were considered to become less preferred (rated as preferred by 53.1% currently and 38.8% in the future). Social media is used by 45.1% of published authors to share scientific articles. The qualitative telephone interviews indicated that the use of social media to distribute and discuss scientific information is expected to increase, supplementing peer-to-peer discussions and other ways to discover content (eg, PubMed). Discussion: The publication landscape is currently changing due to the evolving needs of readers. The increasing numbers of journals and the growing volume of scientific publications, combined with the limited time readers have, is driving a desire for the content of articles to be distilled. Publication stakeholders anticipated that demand for succinct digital formats will increase and that these will provide alternative entry points into full articles rather than replacing existing article formats. Challenges exist associated with the ownership, time, and infrastructure required to produce enhanced digital summaries. Social media is expected to play an important role in raising awareness of, and commenting on, scientific research in the future. Conclusion: Medical publication stakeholders anticipated a decrease in the importance of traditional publication formats and favored visually enhanced digital formats to summarize scientific research succinctly. However, given the requirement to interrogate researchers’ data and conclusions, the traditional, information-rich manuscript is unlikely to be phased out. Instead, it is likely to evolve and be supplemented by enhanced digital formats that may provide alternative entry points into an article. This raises the need for a structured approach that ensures the quality of these shorter, enhanced digital formats. Furthermore, the use of social media in the dissemination, discovery, and communication of scientific articles has increased in recent years and is expected to complement more traditional methods of scientific information dissemination as its use increases.