Things that Worked Well
Interfaces for Ideas
It’s tempting to think of explanations as a layer of polish on top of ideas. We believe that the best explanations are often something much deeper: they are interfaces to ideas, a way of thinking and interacting with a concept.
One of the articles that best exemplifies this type of contribution is Gabriel Goh’s Why Momentum Really Works. Gabe, and other optimization researchers, have a perspective on this problem that may be unfamiliar to practitioners. It involves a mathematical formalism of the spectrum of eigenvalues of the optimization problem, as well as a more informal way of interpreting and thinking about them.
In contrast, this diagram, taken from the article, not only conveys the formalism but also shares some of the author’s intuition. Bolstered by the interactivity, it invites readers to step into a way of thinking. Perhaps most interestingly, by reifying a mental model into a computationally-driven interface, the author discovered places where their thinking was incomplete — specifically, introducing momentum flattens the spectrum of eigenvalues in surprising ways.
Engagement as a Spectrum
One thing we’ve found particularly exciting is how articles can make engaging deeply with ideas an easier and smoother process.
Normally, there’s a huge jump from reading a paper to testing and building on it. But we’re starting to see papers where engagement is a continuous spectrum:
Software Engineering Best Practices for Scientific Publishing
Over the past year, we’ve also seen several advantages to using software engineering best practices to operate a scientific journal.
Every Distill article is housed within a GitHub repository, and peer review is conducted through the issue tracker.
Supporting Authors
Over the last year, we’ve put a lot of energy into mentoring individuals on writing Distill articles.
In the next year, we plan to focus more on scalable ways of helping people by:
- Continuing our work on the Distill Template, which provides many of the basic tools needed for writing beautiful web-first academic papers.
- Writing a Distill Style Guide describing the best practices we’ve discovered.
- Sharing our Distill Reviewer Worksheet so that authors can use it to self-evaluate their article and look for areas to improve.
- Starting a Distill Community Slack workspace where people can seek advice, mentorship, and co-authors.
Growing Distill’s Team
We believe that growing Distill’s editorial team is one of the most important ingredients for its long-term success.
As important as it is to expand our editors, it’s equally important to make sure we pick the right editors. This means building up a team deeply aligned with Distill’s unusual values and mission.
Growing Distill’s Scope
In the long-run, we believe Distill should be open to expanding to other disciplines, with new editors taking on different topic portfolios.
We had previously believed that, in exploring a new kind of publishing, Distill would be best served by focusing on a single “vertical” (machine learning) where it had editorial expertise.
Conclusion
Distill is a young journal exploring a new style of scientific communication. We have learned a lot of valuable lessons in our first year, but we still have a lot of room to grow.
We hope that you will join us in pushing the boundaries of what a scientific paper can be!
Distill is grateful to all the members of the research community who have supported it to date — our authors, reviewers, editors, members of the steering committee, every one providing feedback on GitHub, and, of course, our readers. We’re glad to have you with us!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the Distill journal?
A: Distill is an open-access scientific journal that uses a new style of communication, focusing on clarity, reproducibility, and interactivity.
Q: What are the goals of Distill?
A: Our goals are to create a new kind of scientific journal that makes it easier for readers to engage with complex ideas, and to build a community of authors, reviewers, and editors who share our values.
Q: How does Distill operate?
A: Distill operates through a GitHub repository, where articles are hosted, and peer review is conducted through the issue tracker.
Q: What kind of articles does Distill publish?
A: Distill publishes articles that are concise, clear, and focused on a specific idea or concept. We encourage authors to use interactive diagrams, in-browser notebooks, and other innovative formats to help readers engage with their research.
Q: How do I submit an article to Distill?
A: We encourage you to submit an article to Distill! Please visit our GitHub repository and follow the submission guidelines.
Q: Can I become an editor for Distill?
A: Yes, we are always looking for new editors who share our values and are passionate about creating a new kind of scientific journal. Please get in touch with us through our GitHub repository or via email.
