Prologue: state of the art of research dissemination

The prologue looks at how academic publications have been influenced by the rapid expansion of digital means of communication and by the global extension of the participation framework provided by the web. In a research context that is increasingly digital and international, identity and visibility have become a major issue, especially with the proliferation of academic publications, the availability of new communicative environments – websites, blogs, social media – and the radical changes that have involved even the traditional key elements of publishing – abstracts and journal articles. Attention is paid to the linguistic dimension of this impact, ranging from issues of communicative inequality to the need to compete for visibility and self-promotion: the new context requires attention to a complex media ecology and to the changes taking place in the whole knowledge system. Another key element of the wider social context that is important to consider is the growing social need for academia to engage with stakeholders and the public. Access to knowledge has become a key issue in a “knowledge society”. This involves debates on Public Science – transferring the results of research to professionals or to the wider public, with a view to contributing to society – as well as Open Science – responding to problems of communicative inequality by favouring access to knowledge, for example with open access publishing and education. The role of the web in engaging with the wider public opens a whole cline of possibilities that further characterize the discourse of knowledge, well beyond the basic distinctions traditionally opposing knowledge communication and popularization.