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may be exacerbated in some organisations by lack of expertise in assessing and interpreting the latest research findings.
4.49. The general public. Very few public libraries provide access to journals, and then only to a very small number—such as Nature or the British Medical Journal—in printed form. For most members of the public, the only way in which they can gain access to journals is through the walk-in service provided by some university libraries.[1] During the course of our work, however, a proposal was developed to provide walk-in access to the majority of journals through the public library system. Such an initiative would mark a welcome step-change in access for many members of the public; and we consider in Section 7 how it might operate to best effect.
Access and understanding
4.50. Access on its own does not necessarily make for effective communication. Most journal articles, conference presentations and monographs are written in specialist language that even researchers in related disciplines may find difficult to understand or interpret. Researchers in all disciplines, like other professionals, depend on specialist language to communicate their findings precisely and accurately. But some researchers themselves have complained of articles so poorly-written that it is impossible to replicate the work, or in the worst cases fully to understand what is being reported.[2]
4.51. For non-specialists, the problem is more widespread and more basic. In the early days of journals, the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions were a channel for communication not just between researchers, but also with a wider audience. Nowadays, however, non-specialists face two key problems. First, the huge growth in the volume of research and of journals means that—without effective guidance on the behaviours and norms that underlie the research communications process—it is difficult for non-specialists to navigate their way around the research literature, or to identify authoritative material that is relevant to their needs. There is thus a need for high-quality guidance for non-specialists on the nature, scope and norms used by researchers in publishing their results. We believe that there are opportunities for the development of innovative services here.
4.52. Second, as the language in which researchers communicate with each other has become more specialised, so it has become more difficult for non-specialists to understand. Nowadays relatively few of the articles published in journals can be said to constitute effective means of communication with non-specialist audiences. If access to research results is to be increased so that they are understandable and usable by people beyond the research community, research publications need to be accompanied by publications that present research findings in non-specialist language. Funders, universities and learned societies—as well as researchers
