Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

April 19, 2012

Let us abolish page limits in scientific publications

Filed under: Writing — Patrick Durusau @ 7:20 pm

Let us abolish page limits in scientific publications

Daniel Lemire writes:

As scientists, we are often subjected to strict page limits. These limits made sense when articles were printed on expensive paper. They are now obsolete.

On the contrary, page limits (or their digital equivalents) are more important in a digital setting than when articles appeared in print. (Research data, source code and the like should not be subject to limits but that is a different issue.)

Why?

Perhaps you have heard of the DRY principle:


Don’t

Repeat

Yourself

The hazards of repeating yourself inconsistency, change of one reference and not another, etc., are multiplied in prose writing.

Why?

At least in computer programming, if you otherwise follow good programming practices, some of your tests or even the compiler will catch repetition as a bug. Which can then be fixed. Repetition in prose lacks the advantage of a compiler to catch such errors.

Do you want to be known for “buggy” prose?

Moreover, good writing isn’t accidental. It is a matter of domain knowledge, hard work and practice. Write in a sloppy fashion and before too long, bad habits will creep into your “professional” writing.

Do you want to lose the ability to express yourself clearly?

Finally, your writing reflects your respect (or lack thereof) for readers. Your work is being read for possible use in publications or research. Why would you inflict poor writing on such readers?

To me personally, poor writing reflects a poor understanding of content. Is that how you want to be known?

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