Distill Hiatus
📰 Distill.pub
Distill journal is taking a hiatus due to structural friction and burnout, and may shift towards self-publication and community support
Action Steps
- Recognize the limitations of traditional journal structures in supporting innovative and interactive scientific publishing
- Explore alternative models of publication and community engagement, such as self-publication and open repositories
- Consider the importance of mentorship, community support, and author encouragement in facilitating high-quality scientific communication
- Evaluate the potential benefits and challenges of decentralized, community-driven initiatives in scientific publishing
Who Needs to Know This
Researchers, authors, and editors in the field of scientific publishing and communication can benefit from understanding the challenges and limitations of traditional journal structures and the potential of self-publication and community-driven initiatives
Key Insight
💡 The traditional journal structure may not be the most effective way to support innovative and interactive scientific publishing, and alternative models such as self-publication and community-driven initiatives may be more beneficial
Share This
📚💡 Distill journal takes a hiatus, highlighting the need for innovative approaches to scientific publishing and community support #academicpublishing #scientificcommunication
Key Takeaways
Distill journal is taking a hiatus due to structural friction and burnout, and may shift towards self-publication and community support
Full Article
# Distill Hiatus
[Distill](https://distill.pub/)[About](https://distill.pub/about/)[Prize](https://distill.pub/prize/)[Submit](https://distill.pub/journal/)
# Distill Hiatus
### Authors
### Affiliations
[Editorial Team](http://distill.pub/)
[Distill](http://distill.pub/)
### Published
July 2, 2021
### DOI
[10.23915/distill.00031](https://doi.org/10.23915/distill.00031)
_Over the past five years, Distill has supported authors in publishing artifacts that push beyond the traditional expectations of scientific papers. From Gabriel Goh’s [interactive exposition of momentum](https://distill.pub/2021/distill-hiatus), to an [ongoing collaboration exploring self-organizing systems](https://distill.pub/2020/growing-ca/), to a [community discussion of a highly debated paper](https://distill.pub/2019/advex-bugs-discussion/), Distill has been a venue for authors to experiment in scientific communication._
_But over this time, the editorial team has become less certain whether it makes sense to run Distill as a journal, rather than encourage authors to self-publish. Running Distill as a journal creates a great deal of structural friction, making it hard for us to focus on the aspects of scientific publishing we’re most excited about. Distill is volunteer run and these frictions have caused our team to struggle with burnout._
_Starting today Distill will be taking a one year hiatus, which may be extended indefinitely. Papers actively under review are not affected by this change, published threads can continue to add to their exploration, and we may publish commentary articles in limited cases. Authors can continue to write Distill-style papers using the [Distill template](https://github.com/distillpub/template), and either self-publish or submit to venues like [VISxAI](https://visxai.io/)._
* * *
The Distill journal was founded as an adapter between traditional and online scientific publishing. We believed that many valuable scientific contributions — such as explanations, interactive articles, and visualizations — were held back by not being seen as “real scientific publications.” Our theory was that if a journal were to publish such artifacts, it would allow authors to benefit from the traditional academic incentive system and enable more of this kind of work.
After four years, we no longer believe this theory of impact. First, we don’t think that publishing in a journal like Distill significantly affects how seriously most institutions take non-traditional publications. Instead, it seems that more liberal institutions will take high-quality articles seriously regardless of their venue and style, while more conservative institutions remain unmoved. Secondly, we don’t believe that having a venue is the primary bottleneck to authors producing more Distill-style articles. Instead, we believe the primary bottleneck is the amount of effort it takes to produce these articles and the unusual combination of scientific and design expertise required.
We’re proud of the authors Distill has been able to support and the articles it has been able to publish. And we do think that Distill has produced a lot of value. But we don’t think this value has been a product of Distill’s status as a journal. Instead, we believe Distill’s impact has been through:
* Providing mentorship to authors and potential authors.
* Providing the Distill template (which is used by many non-Distill authors)
* Individuals involved in Distill producing excellent articles.
* Providing encouragement and community to authors.
Our sense is that Distill’s journal structure may limit, rather than support, these benefits. It creates a great deal of overhead, political concerns, and is in direct tension with some of these goals.
Instead, we think the future for most types of articles is probably self-publication, either on one-off websites or on a hypothetical “Distill Arxiv.” There are a few exceptions where we think centralized journal-like entities probably
[Distill](https://distill.pub/)[About](https://distill.pub/about/)[Prize](https://distill.pub/prize/)[Submit](https://distill.pub/journal/)
# Distill Hiatus
### Authors
### Affiliations
[Editorial Team](http://distill.pub/)
[Distill](http://distill.pub/)
### Published
July 2, 2021
### DOI
[10.23915/distill.00031](https://doi.org/10.23915/distill.00031)
_Over the past five years, Distill has supported authors in publishing artifacts that push beyond the traditional expectations of scientific papers. From Gabriel Goh’s [interactive exposition of momentum](https://distill.pub/2021/distill-hiatus), to an [ongoing collaboration exploring self-organizing systems](https://distill.pub/2020/growing-ca/), to a [community discussion of a highly debated paper](https://distill.pub/2019/advex-bugs-discussion/), Distill has been a venue for authors to experiment in scientific communication._
_But over this time, the editorial team has become less certain whether it makes sense to run Distill as a journal, rather than encourage authors to self-publish. Running Distill as a journal creates a great deal of structural friction, making it hard for us to focus on the aspects of scientific publishing we’re most excited about. Distill is volunteer run and these frictions have caused our team to struggle with burnout._
_Starting today Distill will be taking a one year hiatus, which may be extended indefinitely. Papers actively under review are not affected by this change, published threads can continue to add to their exploration, and we may publish commentary articles in limited cases. Authors can continue to write Distill-style papers using the [Distill template](https://github.com/distillpub/template), and either self-publish or submit to venues like [VISxAI](https://visxai.io/)._
* * *
The Distill journal was founded as an adapter between traditional and online scientific publishing. We believed that many valuable scientific contributions — such as explanations, interactive articles, and visualizations — were held back by not being seen as “real scientific publications.” Our theory was that if a journal were to publish such artifacts, it would allow authors to benefit from the traditional academic incentive system and enable more of this kind of work.
After four years, we no longer believe this theory of impact. First, we don’t think that publishing in a journal like Distill significantly affects how seriously most institutions take non-traditional publications. Instead, it seems that more liberal institutions will take high-quality articles seriously regardless of their venue and style, while more conservative institutions remain unmoved. Secondly, we don’t believe that having a venue is the primary bottleneck to authors producing more Distill-style articles. Instead, we believe the primary bottleneck is the amount of effort it takes to produce these articles and the unusual combination of scientific and design expertise required.
We’re proud of the authors Distill has been able to support and the articles it has been able to publish. And we do think that Distill has produced a lot of value. But we don’t think this value has been a product of Distill’s status as a journal. Instead, we believe Distill’s impact has been through:
* Providing mentorship to authors and potential authors.
* Providing the Distill template (which is used by many non-Distill authors)
* Individuals involved in Distill producing excellent articles.
* Providing encouragement and community to authors.
Our sense is that Distill’s journal structure may limit, rather than support, these benefits. It creates a great deal of overhead, political concerns, and is in direct tension with some of these goals.
Instead, we think the future for most types of articles is probably self-publication, either on one-off websites or on a hypothetical “Distill Arxiv.” There are a few exceptions where we think centralized journal-like entities probably
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