My attitude toward the supplement has been a journey.
I was a supplement hater for a long time. I was a supplement hater even after I begrudgingly realized how critical it was to truly understand a study.
I am now converted and I pray at the Alter of the Supplement. However, as a private practice nephrologist, working on the edge of the academy, getting access to manuscripts means that I have always depended on the kindness of strangers (actually usually less strangers and more friends, but one never pass up an opportunity to drop a Blanche DuBois quote). Using this beg-borrow-steal system means I almost always end up with the the manuscript sans supplement. Why do journals have separate downloads for the manuscript and supplement? Contemporary manuscripts regularly reference a table or figure from the supplement so you can’t even understand the manuscript without the supplement. I can get behind requiring a separate download for super specialized information like a protocol, or raw data tables, but most of the content of a typical supplement should ride with the core manuscript and not be a separate download.
A casualty of the tyranny of the page and figure count is the consort diagram. The consort diagram used to be the traditional figure 1, but it is now regularly banished to the supplement. We should not allow rules designed to minimize shipping costs determine the length and completeness of our scientific manuscripts. We need to embrace the reality of frictionless distribution and throw away print-inspired word and figure limits and provide all of the relevant information and data in the manuscript itself (or in a supplement that is part of the download package.
Here was my most recent tweet of this idea:
I guess this has bubbling in my head for a few years now
Josh Farkas is also steadfast in his conspiracy explanation
two years ago:
and here is his reply to my latest tweet on the topic
