The collaborative character of science and scholarship, whether formal
or informal in nature, is the focus of this discussion by a master of
the subject. The world of scholarly communication is evolving with
exponential speed. Propelled by the Web and the rapid transition from
paper to electronic journals, the scale of the research effort is moving
from the individual to research conducted by dozens of scientists
scattered all over the globe. These changes evoke many questions: What
does it mean to be an author in an age of collective effort? How are
responsibility and credit allocated in collaborative endeavors? What is
the relationship between reading, referencing and reputation - the
political economy of citation? How are social relations inscribed in
intellectual space? Will the move to online and open access publishing
provide new measures of authorial salience and intellectual impact?
Cronin answers these questions as he captures the complex relationship
between authorship and the reward system of science.