Towards a foundation of scholarly records management: a framework to understand and organise scholarly communication

Since the creation of the first academic journals in 1665, formal scholarly communication has increasingly been articulated as a publishing activity. From this moment and until the development of digital communication technologies, print publishing became the principal means of communication among geographically dispersed academic communities. Eventually, print journals, monographs, conference proceedings and other scholarly documents began to be collectively referred to as the scholarly record, as they effectively served as authoritative evidence of scholarly activities and discoveries.

By the 20th century, publishing articles in established journals (or monographs with reputable publishers), was already the default method for communicating scholarship in most academic disciplines. The explosive growth in publications that followed the end of WWII only led to the creation of more publishing venues.