Editorial: Selling Science in the 21st Century (Or, Trying to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks).

In my previous editorial, I discussed the importance of selling one’s science (https://youtu.be/RYCfAsKMNRk), primarily from the perspective of writing either grants or papers. We talked about the importance of writing style, organization, and figure presentation when submitting a manuscript or grant proposal. We also discussed how we must now take extra time to point out the significance and innovation of our work, something that is not so easy to do when trying to sound exciting and relevant while avoiding hyperbole. Finally, we made it clear that all of this has to be done without compromising the quality of the science. The scientific community is busy and harried enough, and they cannot afford to be distracted by false claims that are not backed up by scientific rigor. Which brings us to the editorial this month. Once that paper is accepted and in press, is simple publication enough anymore? Are the right people going to see your work? Or are the search engines that we have been using for that past 10–15 years already outmoded? Having crossed over the frightening 50-year-old barrier a while back (how far back is not relevant. . . ), I find myself a bit of an old-fashioned curmudgeon who still prefers a face to face conversation, or even phone calls, to social media. I am still afraid of, and therefore not participating in, Facebook, nor have I ever followed anybody on Twitter. I am bewildered by Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr, and Reddit. In other words, I am a 20th century person living in a 21st century world. Having said that, my kids are trying hard to drag me into the future, despite my kicking and screaming. Furthermore, the Endocrine Society is now working on me as well and may have actually pushed me over the edge and into tomorrow. Why am I finally giving in? I am doing so not for personal reasons but instead because I am beginning to realize that selling your science no longer stops with the publication. We are all busy, and the time that we have to scour through the ever-increasing load of published literature is limited. Imagine this: the number of researchers and funding has not increased (in fact it might be decreasing), and no journals have disappeared recently; however, PLoS One is now publishing over 25 000 papers per year. Add to this the dozens if not hundreds of new journals that now exist, and the number of additional manuscripts coming to press (beyond what it was only 5–6 years ago) almost certainly exceeds 50 000 papers per year. How are we going to determine which articles are worth our limited time? How can we judge which articles are truly important, well vetted, and provide significant contributions to our respective fields? I submit that the old school literature search is no longer up to snuff. There are simply too many articles out there right now, a typical literature search cannot pick out quality, innovation, or significance. So what additional resources can we use to direct us toward the important and relevant papers for our particular fields of study? In fact, we can turn to our friends and professional colleagues on appropriate social media sites to help guide us. How many readers can honestly claim that they have not used Yelp when it comes time to find a