In a sense, publishing a research paper is part of an ongoing public discussion, in reply to all the other authors cited in your work. Apart from that, there a

In a sense, publishing a research paper is part of an ongoing public discussion, in reply to all the other authors cited in your work. Apart from that, there are talks at conferences which are open to discussion with the audience. I suppose there's not really a need for much more than that, in the public sphere. There is plenty of private discussion amongst one's peers of course.