The Scientific Article: A Critical Interpretation of Twenty-First Century Scientific Communication

Abstract: This study investigates the doing of research from the standpoint of communication. The ambition is to offer a historically specific critical interpretation of how to conceptualize the scientific article and its relation to contemporary sociological research. The interpretation is made in light of a synthesized theoretical framework, consisting of insights from Kuhn, Adorno, and Postone. To enable this critical interpretation, qualitative methods were deployed. Interviews were made with scholars active in a Swedish sociological context, and guidelines provided by two international journals were studied. The interpretation suggest that it is possible to conceptualize the scientific article in terms of: (i) a scientific paradigm; (ii) an expression of identity-reason; and (iii) a capitalistic category, namely as a commodity. Together, these notionsimplies that the contemporary academic climate – and its preoccupation with the scientific article – could be interpreted in terms of a paradigmatic tendency of abstraction in the practice of research. The thesis concludes that contemporary sociological research is affected by its currently dominating form of communication.