The archival literature of science

The basic principle of academic science is that the results of research must be made public (§1.5). Whatever scientists think or say individually, their discoveries cannot be regarded as belonging to scientific knowledge until they have been reported to the world and put on permanent record. The fundamental social institution of science is thus its system of communication.

How can one get to know what is known to science? In its most primitive form, scientific knowledge is to be found in the primary literature of science. This is a vast collection of ‘articles’, ‘papers’, ‘research reports’ and similar documents usually in a very conventional style and format that dates back to the origins of modern science in the late seventeenth century. A primary scientific communication is an original contribution to knowledge, by a named author or authors, normally published as a paper or article, of limited length (up to 50 pages, say) in a periodical, or journal devoted to a specific scientific subject.