Open Science & Open Research - New Paradigms in Scholarly Communication Cornelius Puschmann University of Düsseldorf [email_address] 25 June 2008

Issues

Where are we? The Web has given a huge and growing global community access to a wealth of knowledge The bulk of this knowledge is not created by academics, whose main job is “knowledge creation”, but by “amateurs” who donate their spare time Much of what academics create is locked away in specialized journals and publications Paradox: those who could contribute most lag behind furthest What are the reasons and where is change taking place?

The Web has given a huge and growing global community access to a wealth of knowledge

The bulk of this knowledge is not created by academics, whose main job is “knowledge creation”, but by “amateurs” who donate their spare time

Much of what academics create is locked away in specialized journals and publications

Paradox: those who could contribute most lag behind furthest

What are the reasons and where is change taking place?

Non-reasons Proprietary, valuable information? (patents etc) in most cases no Lost publishing revenue? (selling books) generally no, very few publications make the author money Plagiarism? possible, but the risk exists with any form of publishing

Proprietary, valuable information? (patents etc) in most cases no

Lost publishing revenue? (selling books) generally no, very few publications make the author money

Plagiarism? possible, but the risk exists with any form of publishing

Is it really “publishing”? our interpretation of the Web is shaped by metaphors associated with paper, printing and publishing e.g. “web sites / pages / forms ”, “ email ”, but Web 2.0 is increasingly detaching itself from these sources

our interpretation of the Web is shaped by metaphors associated with paper, printing and publishing

e.g. “web sites / pages / forms ”, “ email ”,

but Web 2.0 is increasingly detaching itself from these sources

Why academia is resistant to opening up parts of academia are still highly invested in paper information overload “Is change a good thing?” “Why would I want people to find me?” “It's open access if I have access, right?”

parts of academia are still highly invested in paper

information overload

“Is change a good thing?”

“Why would I want people to find me?”

“It's open access if I have access, right?”

Reaction to perceived information overload many researchers use paper-age methods to work with digital information browsing instead of searching “putting things on the Web” instead of “research happening on the Web” finality vs. versioning controlling quality and making available are conflated

many researchers use paper-age methods to work with digital information

browsing instead of searching

“putting things on the Web” instead of “research happening on the Web”

finality vs. versioning

controlling quality and making available are conflated

“Is change a good thing?” researchers tend to be traditionalists peer-review, quality control etc central paradigms lack of control, order and selection on the Web seen with skepticism by some goal is generally to preserve tried and trusted procedures and port them to the Web (but does that work?)

researchers tend to be traditionalists

peer-review, quality control etc central paradigms

lack of control, order and selection on the Web seen with skepticism by some

goal is generally to preserve tried and trusted procedures and port them to the Web (but does that work?)

“Why would I want people to find me?” small, highly specialized and tightly knit research communities inward-looking assumption that nobody outside the field cares lack of interdisciplinary focus

small, highly specialized and tightly knit research communities

inward-looking

assumption that nobody outside the field cares

lack of interdisciplinary focus

“It's open access if I have access, right?” most academics have easy access to scholarly journals through their libraries the libraries cover the subscription costs many perceive this as “open access” academics aren't directly affected by the costs associated with commercial publishing since they don't have to pay for it younger researchers often can't risk challenging traditions - “publish or perish”

most academics have easy access to scholarly journals through their libraries

the libraries cover the subscription costs

many perceive this as “open access”

academics aren't directly affected by the costs associated with commercial publishing since they don't have to pay for it

younger researchers often can't risk challenging traditions - “publish or perish”

Change

Digital Humanities new approach to Humanities (literary studies, musicology) using computational approaches and presentation techniques new tools and methods have the potential to shine a new light on “old data” http://www.projectbamboo.org/

new approach to Humanities (literary studies, musicology) using computational approaches and presentation techniques

new tools and methods have the potential to shine a new light on “old data”

http://www.projectbamboo.org/

WALS www.wals.info interactive atlas of the world's languages and their typological features (syntax, lexicon, phonology) originally on paper and CD-ROM now interactive, uses Google Maps feature set and maps can be used for other projects (remixing)

www.wals.info

interactive atlas of the world's languages and their typological features (syntax, lexicon, phonology)

originally on paper and CD-ROM

now interactive, uses Google Maps

feature set and maps can be used for other projects (remixing)

OpenWetWare www.openwetware.org collaborative wiki for research labs in biology/biological engineering started by grad students in 2004 originally used by two labs, now international project

www.openwetware.org

collaborative wiki for research labs in biology/biological engineering

started by grad students in 2004

originally used by two labs, now international project

ThoughtMesh www.thoughtmesh.net system for collaboratively tagging and linking scientific texts content of parts can be assessed without reading everything opens the door for “vertical papers”, i.e. finding, reading and citing small chunks of information instead of horizontally digesting the entire article

www.thoughtmesh.net

system for collaboratively tagging and linking scientific texts

content of parts can be assessed without reading everything

opens the door for “vertical papers”, i.e. finding, reading and citing small chunks of information instead of horizontally digesting the entire article

SciVee www.scivee.tv basically YouTube for scholarly content “pubcast” accompanies/supplements a written paper one clip for a paper on motor neurons in the spinal cord of mice has garnered 225.000 views since December 2007 especially attractive for content that can be described visually

www.scivee.tv

basically YouTube for scholarly content

“pubcast” accompanies/supplements a written paper

one clip for a paper on motor neurons in the spinal cord of mice has garnered 225.000 views since December 2007

especially attractive for content that can be described visually

Encyclopedia of Life www.eol.org Wikipedia for the world's species developed (mostly) by experts using scientific taxonomy attempt to concentrate all knowledge on living organisms on Earth in one resource will include video, audio, photos and illustrations

www.eol.org

Wikipedia for the world's species

developed (mostly) by experts using scientific taxonomy

attempt to concentrate all knowledge on living organisms on Earth in one resource

will include video, audio, photos and illustrations

Current approach to research and publishing + records uses = public not public “human-readable” only static primarily textual

“human-readable” only

static

primarily textual

“Web-enabled” approach to research and publishing + records uses = public semantically annotated dynamic and interactive different modes of presentation (audio, video)

semantically annotated

dynamic and interactive

different modes of presentation (audio, video)

Integrating and interlinking academic content

Using blogs in teaching

“Web-enabling” content from scholarly journals

E-journal editor's blog

Thanks for listening!