Could We "Wikify" Scholarly Canons?

An anonymous reader writes "'We can enormously extend the record; yet even in its present bulk we can hardly consult it' wrote Vannevar Bush in a 1945 Atlantic Monthly article. Nearly 70 years later, academics are still wrapping research in inaccessible journal articles. Might they be doing it wrong?"

Comments

PLOS

[rueger]

Admittedly I only skimmed TFA, but the better Open Access scholarly journals seem to be already doing much of what's described.

I'm a big fan of the work for instance.

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Wikimedia != Wikipedia

[Zero__Kelvin]

Don't confuse the Wiki as a tool with Wikipedia. Anybody saying things like "Oh God ... How about "NO". is doing exactly that. Wikis are a powerful tool in the right hands when configured properly. There is absolutely no reason why it wouldn't be an excellent idea to leverage the technology in this and many other areas. It is a way to capture content and content history that is searchable, and it can be done with login only access. Right now if you read an article you only get to see what they print. With a wiki you could see the entire history and have far more information at your disposal, including the dead ends explored, etc.

So in conclusion? Oh God no? Nah.