New forms of scholarship, including fresh models
of publication and nontraditional scholarly products,
are evolving along with the changing process. Some
of these forms are very common—blogs and video
clips, for instance—but academia has been slow to
recognize and accept them. Some scholars worry
that blogging may cut into time that would otherwise
be used for scholarly research or writing, for
example, or that material in a podcast is not as well
researched as material prepared for print publication.
Proponents of these new forms argue that they
serve a different purpose than traditional writing and
research—a purpose that improves, rather than runs
counter to, other kinds of scholarly work. Blogging
scholars report that the forum for airing ideas and
receiving comments from their colleagues helps
them to hone their thinking and explore avenues
they might otherwise have overlooked.