Continuous science is an evolving response to a simple but urgent realization: science has changed, and the systems we use to share it have not.
Research today is computational, collaborative, data-rich, iterative, fast-paced. Yet the ways we evaluate, communicate, and credit that work remain largely static — often reducing rich, interactive, and iterative efforts into flattened PDFs and disconnected supplements. In response, continuous science offers a shift: from publishing as a single moment to communication as an ongoing process; from static articles to complete, connected, and reusable research objects; from one-size-fits-all journals to modular, interoperable systems designed with researchers in mind.
But what exactly is continuous science? It isn’t a single technology or standard. It’s a set of emerging practices, tools, and cultural shifts — many already underway — that emphasize iteration, integration, networks, and researcher-first infrastructure. And like the science it aims to support, the definition of continuous science is itself continuous: something we are refining together, based on real needs, working examples, and shared understanding.
This glossary collects terms that help describe and shape this evolving approach. It doesn’t aim to lock things in place, but to build shared language we can use to clarify our goals, align our efforts, and improve how science is done and shared.
We are defining Continuous Science not just to describe a movement, but to make its future more actionable, visible, and possible as well as to coordinate ongoing efforts in the community.
- Continuous Science
- Continuous Science is an approach to scientific research and communication that emphasizes iteration and rapid sharing throughout the entire research lifecycle. Continuous Science supports early and often sharing of complete artifacts (either privately or openly), with tools and practices that promote the integration of data, code, and methods directly into scientific narratives. It prioritizes automation, reproducibility, and reuse — enabling researchers to collaboratively build on each other’s work more easily, receive timely feedback, and treat communication as an ongoing process rather than a final product.
Related Concepts¶
Our current working definition of Continuous Science is pulling together many actions and concepts in a related glossary. The core concepts that stand out are rapid, complete, reusable, and automated.
