“I love the idea of ‘micropublications’ (preparing one now),” the neurobiologist Oded Rechavi commented on social media in July. The term clearly suggests a short article, and although the publishing model has been around for more than a decade, not everyone is familiar with this type of scientific communication. What are they? What’s their impact? Rechavi, a professor at the School of Biochemistry, Neurobiology and Biophysics at Tel Aviv University, was pointing to an emerging discussion among scientists, the search for alternative formats for their work.