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Dr John Paradin
Evolution by natural selection is one of the most halting intellectual advances in the history of science. In putting it into words, Charles Darwin did not simply suggest a biological process, but he transformed the way humanity perceives life and variation, adaptation, and ancestry. Now, in a wholly new academic ecosystem of digital platforms, international indexing, and instantaneous communication, the distribution of the research of evolution, and, in fact, any doctoral dissertation, happens globally on a scale that could never have existed during the era of Darwin.
This paper will look at two interconnected themes: the first which is the conceptual structure of the Darwinian model of evolution; the second is how the present-day academic publishing infrastructures have democratized and speeded up the dissemination of theses and research products across the globe.
On the Origin of Species was published in 1859 in a scientific community that was already facing the challenges of geology, natural theology and life classification. Fossil finds gave a clue of extinction and evolution. Explorations were introducing unknown organisms into the European taxonomies. However, there was no unifying, empirically-based mechanism that was sufficiently sufficient in explaining how species evolved.
This was not the only time Darwin had this insight. There were influences as high as the artificial selection activities by breeders, to the demographic arguments of Thomas Robert Malthus, who placed a lot of stress on competition over scarce resources. Darwin put these strands together in a logical explanatory framework that could explain the biodiversity without having to refer to the independent acts of creation.
The Darwinian evolution can be even summed up in a few logically linked propositions which, in turn, give rise to enormous explanatory force.
The subjects of a species are not homogenous. They show morphological, physiological and behavioral hereditary variations. Certain of these variations influence life or reproduction.
Resources are finite. Organisms hence compete- amongst conspecifics, between species as well as environmental restrictions.
Those with characteristics that are more adapted to the local conditions are, on average, more likely to have higher offspring.
Favorable characteristics are compounded across generations. The populations diverge slowly, even resulting in new species.
The beauty of the model is that the logic is cumulative. There is no external guiding force that is necessary; the process of adaptation is the results of the statistical effects of the operation of the environment on inheritance.
Darwin used various empirical fields and presented an argument which was cross-validated.
Even though genetics had not yet been formalised, the line of thought suggested by Darwin was strong enough to incorporate future findings.
During the twentieth century, convergent evolution occurred between Mendelian genetics, population biology and paleontology into what some scholars call the Modern Synthesis. Mutation provided variation; recombination riffled it; nature selected results. The concept of evolution became measurable, predictable and experimentally accessible.
In the current state, molecular phylogenetics , evo-devo and genomics have continued to expand the framework, although are still recognizably Darwinian in their reasoning.
This gap between the time of Darwin and ours is perhaps best seen in the business of publication. Darwin toiled many years, wrote by sea mail and relied upon physical distribution of prints. It was slow, geographically restricted and socially stratified.
In the sphere of modern research, it is a world of real-time distribution, databases of literature that can be searched, and international cooperation. Theses defended in one country can be accessed all over the world within hours.
The present-day picture is characterized by a number of structural changes:
These processes not only have modified speed but have changed the epistemic reach as well. Scholarship is now placed into a transnational discussion.
In the past, readership was mediated by geographic location and institutional prestige in a very strong way. To some extent, this hierarchy is flattened by digital ecosystems. A thesis that has been carefully selected by an emerging research setting can gain the attention of the entire world provided it is dealing with pertinent issues of concern and has been indexed appropriately.
This is especially revolutionary in interdisciplinary studies, like evolutionary biology, climate adaptation or even public health, where local data can be of international interest.
Facilitation of dissemination does not nullify the need to be rigorous. Peer review, ethical clearance, plagiarism screening and transparency of methods are the key ones. As a matter of fact, the more visible it is, the more it is subject to scrutiny: the faster the misdeeds spread like wildfire.
As a result publication strategy and data management planning and impact measurement are increasingly part of doctoral training.
The contemporary publishing age has placed a great deal of emphasis on Evolutionary Theory.
Even the study of evolution itself is an example of the good of global communication. Genomic data is distributed on different continents; analysis of fossils is discussed in real-time; computer models are replicated on an international scale. In the web of handwritten letters that Darwin created, it would have been inconceivable to have collaborative consortia.
Also, theses have become in many cases launching pads towards the article pipelines, preprints, conference presentations, and media interactions.
Attention is measured by digital mediums. Reputational economies involve downloads, citation, altmetrics and social interactions. Although such measures have the potential to encourage productivity, they also bring up controversies concerning the issue of depth/speed, crises of replication, and accountable scholarship.
Academic publishers are becoming more of a service provider in addition to printing, providing editorial development, formatting, plagiarism detection, DOI assignment and dissemination planning. Others support the multimedia supplements or data repositories, which allow the reproducibility.
To researchers especially those who are first time authors these infrastructures minimize administrative friction and expand reach.
Associated with new tensions are the democratization of access. The predatory outlets, article processing charges, and the intellectual property considerations make the process of decisions difficult. Academics need to juggle between visibility and credibility.
Through technological revolutions, however, there is a continuity. Darwin tried to obtain lasting arguments based on evidence as well as arguments that are revisable. The dissemination tools used in the modern world only enhance that scientific ethos and do not substitute it.
The concept of natural selection made by Darwin redefined life as the historical existence that is formed under the influence of variation and inheritance. Simultaneously, the structure of the scholarly communication has been evolving itself, as well, becoming less localized with print networks to immediate global communication.
To the current doctoral students, the process of going through thesis defense to international readership is as quick, competitive, and shorter. But the basic requirement is the same as that of 1859: create work of rigor, originality, and explanatory power sufficiently high that it will be able to pass critical scrutiny.
Had Darwin published today his notebooks could be uploaded in seconds. Nevertheless, the case would still be pegged on the quality of evidence.
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