What are Journals for?

'The secret is comprised in three words - work, finish, publish.' Michael Faraday There are many reasons doctors want to publish their work. For most at an early stage in their career, this may be to add a line to their curriculum vitae and advance their careers but for academics, publishing is an expectation. Many will believe they have something important to say, and wish to provoke debate and discussion; others wish to share knowledge and experiences, which in medicine can lead to a satisfying change in clinical practice. All serve to register one's idea and educate others. However, for some, the reason is as basic as money. As we celebrate the 350th anniversary of the first academic publication, perhaps we have come full circle when it comes to why people publish? Publishing is a flourishing business. There were approximately 28,100 active scholarly peer-reviewed journals in mid-2012, collectively publishing about 1.8-1.9 million articles per year. The number of articles published each year and the number of journals have both grown steadily for more than two centuries, by about 3% and 3.5% per year respectively. (1) Journals have a responsibility to refine and define information and act as a scientific filter. Many of us will receive daily invitations in our email inbox from eclectic and new journals that are likely to take anything - is the filter now too porous? But this industry is like any other commercial activity and the supply still far outstrips the demand. Perhaps the internet revolution has merely fuelled our hunger to publish more? The launch of this exciting and innovative series about publishing coincides with the 350th celebration of the publication of the first academic journal. In the age of social media, the first question is 'What are journals for?', which Simon Rallison sets out to answer. Simon is Director of Publications at the Physiological Society, and was previously a journal publisher with Earthscan, Springer and Blackwell. Writing is hard work and, through this series, I hope the reader will get some useful insight into this service industry for academia. Jyoti Shah Commissioning Editor Reference 1. Ware M, Mabe M. The STM Report. 3rd edn. The Hague: International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers; 2012.