Setting here in hot and muggy Washington DC after doing my first event of the AAA.  The joint journal editors/publications committee meeting.   One of the key messages is that there is a strong likelihood of a major disruptive event in academic publishing over the next X years, where X is a small number greater than 6 months and less than 60 months.  I think most editors in the room were oblivious to this trend or the potential importance of it to academic publishing. But then again, as the old saying goes “it is hard to remember the objective was to empty the swamp when you have alligators biting your butt!”  I will let you make the analogy.

What would this event be? It will be likely to be around the integration of data sets, analysis code, video technology and a change in the publishing platform of record – the traditional PDF file towards a technology that easily integrates these other aspects.  Hearing this I am glad that my current research team is working on a video version of our latest research – on audit research knowledge transfer to standard setters.  I thought it would be a good means to communicate our message to the standard setting community but it may indeed become part of the version of record of our final article if these trends move as fast as expected.  Hope to unveil the video by mid-September!!!