The journal Science plans online videos of select papers

Published in The Hindu on August 14, 2009

Science will soon become more interesting. The American Association for the Advancement of Science , the publishers of the journal Science, and the Boston-based JoVE, the scientific video journal, will work together to produce scientific videos online. Some of the papers dealing with experimental techniques, and published in Science will be chosen for video enhancement.

The project is currently in a pilot phase.

The rationale to produce videos of experimental techniques stems from the fact that no matter how detailed and well written a paper is, a video demonstration of the technique will be more effective in helping readers understand how something is done. The journal will select papers that merit video supplementation.

The videos, which will be made available along with the original article, will be a true demonstration of the authentic nature of the claims made by authors. But the catch is, the authors need to be willing to work together with Science and JoVE to help produce the videos.