Upheavals to scholarly communication have not embraced Robert Merton’s normative guide to good scientific research.

An impact-driven scholarly communication system may offer new levels of views for research and new metrics to assess these works, but are the upheavals actually reinforcing the cumulative advantage of those already in power? Drawing on Robert Merton’s norms for the production of science, Avtar Natt reframes current scholarly developments and finds the roots are too deep for a fair and equal system of knowledge production.