Discuss the purpose of journals and professional papers?

Question

Discuss the purpose of journals and professional papers?

Answer 1

The main purpose of journals is to try to insure a minimum level rigor in a submitted paper and to then facilitate interaction between scientists by publishing the paper.  Journals insure the minimum level of rigor through a process called peer review.

Peer review is a process where a paper submitted to a journal is first sent to a panel of fellow scientists in the field for their comments and suggestions.  Only if the paper passes this peer review process will the journal publish the research paper.

The submitted paper is then subject to the scrutiny of the entire scientific community,  The published paper may generate interest that results in further research that may confirm or invalidate the findings of the paper.

Ultimately the paper enters the archives of scientific research that provides the basis of our understanding of the world we live in.  On many occasions old scientific papers are resurrected to provide fresh insights into developing areas of science.  One such instance was Mendel’s genetics paper.  Others include Wegener's continental movement and Edward Lorenz’s chaos theory.

Answer 2

Almost all of the greatest discoveries and scientific advancements are built upon knowledge and technology that has been invented or discovered previously by scientists, engineers and other professionals - this venue gives them a chance to share their discoveries and theories which allows others to build upon them.