I recently found myself forced to defend the state of academic publishing during a conversation with non-academics at a social event. So many articles get published in academic journals these days and so few of these are ever read they argued. If the number of academic papers published appears to be growing year-on-year, is this necessarily bad? I think that the last two winters in Scotland have seen heavier and more frequent rain than previously, but I haven’t heard anyone suggest that this rain is less wet than before! Just as climate change might explain changing weather patterns, there are several factors that might explain the growth in academic publishing. For one thing, advances in technology have vastly increased the data and computational power available to researchers. It is also the case that the growth in the university sector means that there are many more people now engaged in academic research. In this environment, it should not be surprising that the number of articles published is increasing. Nor should it be assumed that interest in this output is diminishing. In fact, I believe that interest in academic research is also growing. In addition to a greater number of academics searching the literature for “gaps”, the recent focus on research impact, in the UK and many other countries, means that articles in academic journals often explain the practical relevance of the research more clearly than before. It follows that the pool of potential readers, both academics and practitioners, is increasing. Not only that, it is much more likely that these potential readers will be able to find articles on topics that are of interest to them. Technology has transformed the way people search for academic papers. When I started out as a researcher, locating articles on a topic of interest would involve at least a day’s work. Time spent searching the multiple volumes of the Science Citation Index, visiting various libraries, browsing shelves of bound periodicals and, finally, photocopying papers. Today, the same task takes minutes from anywhere using any device connected to the internet. Finally, the gradual shift towards open access means that potential readers are more likely to be able to get access to relevant articles.