Lost in the limit

A remarkable by-product of the excesses of recent academic publishing will itself be one of the fruits of the proliferation of the phenomenon of the 5,000-6,000 word journal article. In an effort to condense their prose into bite-size chunks (including notes and bibliographies) authors cut all manner of material once considered a pre-requisite for peer acceptance. Gone the survey of existing material in the field; vanished the cursory acknowledgement of established contributors, peers and up and coming unpublished PhDs; shortened to a snapshot the once extensive bibliography. In such a stripped down domain (paradoxically located within the hyper-saturation of material), not only is it increasingly difficult to feel one can contribute anything substantial within the word limit, it is also becoming very tempting to hide behind a shrug of the shoulders as if to say, “sorry no space to acknowledge your exemplary scholarship, space is never permitting.”