Changing times for scholarly communication: The case of the academic research video and the online video journal

This paper aims to address the video as a new scholarly communication form, alternative to the traditional written paper. Although the use of video could be a worthwhile option for any field of study in which videographic practice would facilitate the communication of the research findings and thus enhance our understanding of them, this practice seems especially useful when the object of study itself is the audiovisual language. For this reason and because the number of media scholars communicating their research outputs in videos has increased in recent years to the extent of becoming a new trend, I focus on the exploration of this practice in this discipline. However, could the video meet academic standards, and thus be considered as a new scholarly form? If the answer is affirmative, what exactly makes a video academic? Offering some answers to these questions is the main purpose of this article, which reviews how the transition from the written paper to the audiovisual form is evolving. This exploration will include not only these types of videos but also the online journals that make the publication of such videos possible, thereby facilitating a study of how these online platforms allow new ways of communicating research outputs in academic contexts.