Research goes digital: A challenge for genre analysis?

Over the past thirty years, there has been a massive change in research practices, with a great deal of research now being conducted and disseminated in the digital medium. This movement has been accompanied by a corresponding surge in the number of digital genres in which researchers can share and discuss research, both with peers and an interested public. The objective of this article is to identify some of the challenges that the online dissemination and production of research may pose for genre theory. After first reviewing the criteria traditionally used to define genres in English for Specific Purposes, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Rhetorical Genre Studies, we focus on three central aspects of the digital medium that impact research genres: multimodality and hypertextuality, audience and identity, collaboration and interactivity. We discuss to what extent existing genre analysis can accommodate digital genres or whether new criteria are needed.