What can print copies offer that online access cannot?
Ai Lin Chun
Wednesday, 22 October 2008 12:16 UTC
Greetings,
I’ve received a few ‘thank you’ notes recently for the print copies that we send to Authors who publish with Nature Nanotechnology. So, thank you for taking the time to send these kind notes. These are the tiny things that make my day! I’m still waiting for a thank you note from the postman though…:)
Many have indicated how happy they were to receive a print copy of the journal because in the present world of digital publishing, print journals are becoming rare and precious; this very much resonates with my experience…
During my time in graduate school, most journals were already online and the library services were so sophisticated that all we needed to do was submit an order form and the pdf will be delivered to our email, even for very old papers. So apart from the few classes that needed one to go to the library and run through the journals on the shelves, flipping through the pages of a journal was a rare thing. I still remember how dusty the shelves always were, attesting to the fact that fewer people were using the library stacks.
It is still a rare thing today (if not rarer!) but fortunately enough for me, I receive a print copy of Nature every week and copies of Nature Nano on my desk every month. I have to say I enjoy flipping through these over clicking the webpage, even though in reality, I click on the web pages more frequently because of the need to be up to date.
Print is old-fashioned, slower and not so environmentally friendly but you can bring it everywhere (including the toilet!), can appreciate the layout and creative advertising announcements and scribble comments/ideas as you read the articles. And it’s easy on the eyes.
Digital provides fast updates and is environmentally friendly but some days I do feel overwhelmed!
I think digital media is very useful and has many advantages but at the end of the day, I still love curling up in my bed with a print media rather than a laptop. And I cannot see people reading bedtime stories to their children from the internet. Or hold the laptop the way I do with the print journal.
Print media should continue because it complements digital ones.
How to keep print media from dying out? Or should it be allowed to be replaced by digital media?
Have your say…
Updated 22 October 2008 13:07 UTC
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Replies
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Curling up in bed with a laptop is indeed cumbersome. But it works quite well if you have an iPhone/iPod Touch or some similar media device. I regularly read documents on mine, often from the bed or sofa.
Print is still best if you’re the sort of person who likes to write in the margins or highlight text. I’ve never found an equally quick, convenient way to do that electronically.
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When I grasped the last printed copy of the March 2008 Nature Nanotechnology issue at the MRS conference in San Francisco this year, I felt that I had won the jackpot! Although more and more scientific journals are becoming fully digitalized, the printed format holds a longer-lasting sentimental value for the student authors publishing in the journal, similar to having a “Collector’s Edition”.
I guess the ability to concretely hold a small piece of history in your hands rather than opening a file that was downloaded 30 seconds ago is also something that add appeals to the printed version.
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Agreed, authors are very keen on print copies. At Nature, we send all authors a copy of the printed issue containing their article, and it is very welcomed by them. In our author experience surveys, recently published authors tell us how much they like having their article in print (i.e. they would not like the article to be only available online).
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