Thoughts about past, the present and the future of scholarly technologies and scholarly practices. Based on work done with @hvdsomp at #DANS, as well as discussions with @scharnhorsta

1. A
reflec'on
on
the
past,
the
present
and
the
future
of
scholarly
technologies
and
scholarly
prac'ces
Meertens
eHumani'es
talk
23/1/2014
@atreloar

2. Credit
where
it
is
due
• Drawing
this
aEernoon
on
three
strands
of
thought:
– Doctoral
ac'vity
(from
a
long
'me
ago!)
– Work
with
@hvdsomp
(over
last
two
weeks)
– Thinking
with
@scharnhorsta
(since
September)
• Thanks
to
last
two
go
to
@pkdoorn
from
DANS
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
2

3. Outline
•
•
•
•
Personal
context
Some
werkhypothesen
Func'ons
of
scholarly
communica'on
Pointers
to
the
future
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
3

4. CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
4

5. Some
personal
background
• Educa'on
–
–
–
–
•
•
•
•
•
BA
(Germanic
Languages
&
Linguis'cs)
MA
(English
Literature)
Grad.
Dip.
(Compu'ng
Studies)
PhD
(Scholarly
Communica'on)
Academic
career:
1983-­‐1999
Health
informa'on
network
career:
1988-­‐1990
IT
Opera'ons
career:
1999-­‐2005
e-­‐Research
infrastructure
career:
2003-­‐present
More
gory
details
– andrew.treloar.net/personal/
– andrew.treloar.net/research/
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
5

6. Generations of scholarly
communication
• Republic of Letters
• System of Journals
• Web of Objects
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

7. 1. All
knowledge
is
important
[to
someone]
• Implica'ons:
The
processes,
structures
and
systems
associated
with
the
genera'on
and
communica'on
of
knowledge
are
thus
also
important.
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
7

8. 2.
The
process
of
genera;ng
knowledge
ma<ers
• Hopefully
self-­‐evident?
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
8

9. 3.
Uncommunicated
knowledge
can
have
no
effect
• Implica'ons:
– Primary
-­‐
we
need
a
system
to
communicate
the
outputs
of
research
– Secondary
-­‐
it
is
desirable
if
this
system
has
a
broad
a
public
as
possible
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
9

10. 4.
The
integrity
of
what
is
communicated
is
cri;cal
• Implica'ons:
All
elements
that
lead
to
the
genera'on
of
the
new
knowledge
are
thus
also
within
scope
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
10

11. Genera'ons
of
Scholarly
Communica'on
• Google
doc
in
progress
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
11

12. 5.
The
genera;on
of
knowledge
is
becoming
more
dependent
on
data
and
models
• Implica'ons:
Data
and
models
also
need
to
be
archived
and
communicated
• NOTE:
This
varies
by
discipline,
and
thus
may
be
easier
to
falsify
for
some
disciplines
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
12

13. 6.
Scholarly
communica;on
thus
needs
to
include
publica;on
of/access
to
data/models
• Implica'ons:
We
need
to
provide
ways
of
publishing
(in
the
sense
of
making
public)
data
and
models,
along
with
journal
ar'cles
and
monographs
(and
working
papers,
etc)
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
13

14. 7.
Data
and
models
should
be
first
class
communica;on
objects
• Implica'on:
We
need
ways
to
refer
to/
cite/access
data
and
models
on
their
own,
not
just
as
linked
en''es
hanging
off
a
publica'on
• Notes:
– Rather
than
data
and
models
just
being
ways
to
produce
publica'ons,
they
can
have
value
in
their
own
rights.
– In
some
cases
(e.g.
Human
Genome
database)
the
data
itself
is
much
more
important
than
any
single
associated
publica'on.
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
14

15. 8.
The
rela;onship
between
first
class
objects
is
itself
of
value
• Implica'on:
We
need
ways
of
represen'ng
this
rela'onship
that
are
both
human
and
machine-­‐readable
• Notes:
– Obviously
OAI-­‐ORE
is
directly
relevant
here
– As
are
Verrijkte
Publica'es
(although
these
are
very
publica'on-­‐centric)
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA
@atreloar
15

16. Functions of Research Communication
Rosendaal and Geurts (1997)
• Registration: Allows claims of precedence for a
scholarly finding
• Certification: Establishes validity of claim
• Awareness: Allows actors in the system to remain
aware of new claims
• Archiving: Preserves the scholarly record
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

17. System of Journals
• Registration
– submission of manuscript
• Certification
– peer-review (pre-publication)
– commentary (post-publication)
• Awareness
– discovery services
• Archiving
– libraries (print)
– publishers (electronic)
– special purpose organisations (e.g. Portico)
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

18. Pointers to the future
“the future is already here – it’s
just not very evenly distributed”
William Gibson, NPR interview
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

19. Registration: BioRxiv
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

20. Registration: ideacite
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

21. Registration: Github
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

22. Registration: WikiPathways
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

23. Registration: NeuroLex
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

24. Registration: Nanopublications
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

25. Registration: Observations
•
•
•
•
Decoupling registration from certification
Timestamping, versioning
Registration of various types of objects
Machines as creators and contributors
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

26. Certification: PubPeer
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

27. Certification: ZooUniverse
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

28. Certification: Slideshare
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

29. Certification: Project FeederWatch
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

30. Certification: Observations
•
•
•
•
Peer-review decoupled from publication process
Certification of various types of objects
Machines validating
Social endorsement
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

31. Awareness: NARCIS
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

32. Awareness: myExperiment
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

33. Awareness: eLabNotebook RSS
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

34. Awareness: Twitter
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

35. Awareness: CrossRef Prospect
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

36. Awareness: Observations
•
•
•
•
Awareness for various types of objects
Real time awareness
Awareness support targeted at machines
Awareness through social media
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

37. Archiving: CLOCKSS
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

38. Archiving: DANS Easy
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

39. Archiving: perma.cc
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

40. Archiving: EU Trusted Digital Repositories
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

41. Archiving: Observations
•
•
•
•
Archiving for various types of objects
Distributed archives
Archival consortia
Audit for trustworthiness
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

42. Characterising the future
Hidden
Research Process
Visible
Fixed
Nature of object
Varying
Atomic
Atomicity of object
Compound
Discrete
Process of making public
Continuous
Delayed
Speed of communication
Publication
+data proxies
Communicated object
Formal
Nature of process
Instant
Publication +
linked data +
linked models
Informal
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp

43. Conclusions
• The
world
is
changing,
but…
• Changes
in
scholarly
prac'ce
require:
– drivers
for
altered
behaviours
– infrastructure
to
support/enable
altered
behaviours
• Not
clear
what
final
implica'ons
will
be
yet
• Exci'ng
'me
to
be
a
scholar!
January
27,
2014
CC-­‐BY-­‐SA,
@atreloar
and
@hvdsomp