Learned journals and the communication of research

There has been a great deal of debate, some of it heated, in recent years about learned journals and whether they, and those who publish them, have a place in the future scheme of things. This article is an attempt to set down the issues as dispassionately as possible, in the hope that this may lead what have sometimes been seen as ‘warring factions’ to collaborate in the search for solutions to the dilemmas we all face.