The Social Journal

The Social Journal Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? Dorothea Salo George Mason University STM Innovations Seminar 1 December 2006 Photo credit: http://ﬂickr.com/photos/dr_pete/80464938/ Photo credit: http://ﬂickr.com/photos/dr_pete/80464938/

What was a journal? • Communication tool • Overcome geographic dispersion • Build a discourse community out of a topic of interest • Expand the reach of scientiﬁc thought beyond the gentleman-scholar • Build the market for science books • Not... • A career tool for scholars • Quality control • A proﬁt center • An in-group/out-group divider

Sir Isaac Newton m "e i" urre w onc of o c e ad u ty t t in& it a d "a $ te em p% vele wch y es rea t by nel e ( y ot o a g itu d )l n ut mul t a doe , b s dom Sr I led $ %( free e w so i" ve m kno cen y w ie ll a bel rea c’ t & I m For of ) ot i on reju' lo& p rom a p & mbl y ye to ed e in rses baﬂ Ass 'sc ( een an g av e b all osin s h a *i exp tru " imp ny s & ma i( ns c mea ju' so to self my

What changed? • Professionalization of research • Standards! • Authority! • Production quality! (And its associated costs.) • Tenure! • “The scholarly record” • Emergence of disciplinary boundaries • $$$... $$$$$$$... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!! Photo credit: http://ﬂickr.com/photos/zemoko/172174697/

Journal as identity marker

But all of that conversational energy had to go somewhere...

CiteULike Email nc es confere pr ints Online Pre Grey litera Bulletin boards ture LISTSERVs en et Us WW W Weblogs RSS feeds esse nger M Ins tant

Conversation only htt the p:/ th e pr of essi on, oge ther , if w e wrot e /lis ts. we —Mary Jane Anderson ee n in rk ed t we bju ha ve b f w e wo O r if nc a nd I w as i enc es. w as tio s you o ther co nfer er * it n.o year each ALA *Aft othe r rg/ the to nt t o blis h. in all ta lk" we pu en ing wj For ld " f we ould happ roug h list ou i w as th we c ot her, ed itor at w ered e s/p way ach an t wh f ilt s pac ub to e tter abou was nd a wrot e le new ng, A lib e o r a we k th inki lag. /19 ticl What ere time an a r se. s w s a 97 f cour o ther a lway -Fe e d, o t what ere was e br edit abou d th s of th ua s, An eeper arie es s. ek p ut ry/ libr y pr e gat icles 07 li brar er e th of art 81 the pr ess w form 55 ch . ib rary in th e st word. .ht crun f the l e ideas t he la ml ors o of th lways E dit on, and al w as a rsati itori conve T he ed e us. befor The role of gatekeeper is not in jeopardy; it's gone. Cyberspace has blown it away. The power to edit the words and ideas that go out is gone; cyberspace has erased it. How we learn what's happening is continuing to change, so rapidly that even LJ's new site has not quite figured out how to get ahead of the breaking news.

So now what?

Don’t do this! “It is reasonable to ask whether lay members of the public—taxpayers whose hard-earned dollars helped • Do not cut off to support this research—will gain from their conversations! reading of this article any better understanding of the research results. Some certainly will, but I • Resist the temptation to play gatekeeper! suspect that most will not. For those who do want access, however, many options are available—a • Do not insult your reprint request to the author, electronic access readers, both actual through a library, or purchase (for a nominal fee) and potential! directly from the APA website.” • Do not assume that your current —Stephen Breckler American Psychological Association audience is your “Open Access and Public Understanding” APA Online, April 2006 entire audience!

Your advantage over us Library Society

Sine qua non • If your articles don’t have short, reliable URLs... • If you’re not producing TOC newsfeeds... • If your article metadata doesn’t work with... • RefWorks / EndNote • Metasearch • OpenURL • COinS / unAPI • Connotea • CiteULike • Zotero • But what’s the use? Photo credit: http://ﬂickr.com/photos/yotophoto/126295852/

Tracking, citing, using • “I read something a couple weeks ago...” • “Didn’t somebody write an article about...?” • “Hey, did you see...” • “Argh, where’s that citation?!” • They’ll talk about you and cite you if you make it easy! • They’ll hate you or ignore you if you don’t.

Filtering • Too much stuff! What’s new, what’s hot? What’s just a retread? • What are the experts reading? • What are my colleagues reading? • What do I think my colleagues ought to read? • What do I want to read later? • This is good; what else is like it?

Collaborative ﬁltering • Tagging, “folksonomy” • Lets people use their own mental models and vocabulary, not some librarian’s • Lets people know what people they respect are reading • Reviewing • “Open peer review” • Really collaborative revision • Recommending, making connections • Discussing: the webchat Photo credit: http://ﬂickr.com/photos/sonofgroucho/252398894/

Egoboo • Visibility! • Vanity surﬁng • Personal contact • Professional networking • More than just impact factors! • More than just citation tracking! • So... • Offer your authors download stats • Offer ways to connect authors and readers • Use your authors’ talents! Photo credit: http://ﬂickr.com/photos/leonardlow/253735058/

The Future

Thank you! dsalo@gmu.edu AIM: gmumars Slides: http://mars.gmu.edu/

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The Social Journal

by Dorothea Salo

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