Research Blogging: Indexing and Registering the Change in Science 2.0

Increasing public interest in science information in a digital and 2.0 science era promotes a dramatically, rapid and deep change in science itself. The emergence and expansion of new technologies and internet-based tools is leading to new means to improve scientific methodology and communication, assessment, promotion and certification. It allows methods of acquisition, manipulation and storage, generating vast quantities of data that can further facilitate the research process.

It also improves access to scientific results through information sharing and discussion. Content previously restricted only to specialists is now available to a wider audience. This context requires new management systems to make scientific knowledge more accessible and useable, including new measures to evaluate the reach of scientific information. The new science and research quality measures are strongly related to the new online technologies and services based in social media. Tools such as blogs, social bookmarks and online reference managers, Twitter and others offer alternative, transparent and more comprehensive information about the active interest, usage and reach of scientific publications.

Another of these new filters is the Research Blogging platform, which was created in 2007 and now has over 1,230 active blogs, with over 26,960 entries posted about peer-reviewed research on subjects ranging from Anthropology to Zoology. This study takes a closer look at RB, in order to get insights into its contribution to the rapidly changing landscape of scientific communication.

URL : http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0050109

Freedom for scholarship in the internet age …

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Freedom for scholarship in the internet age :

“Freedom for Scholarship in the Internet Age examines distortion in the current scholarly communication system and alternatives, focusing on the potential of open access. High profits for a select few scholarly journal publishers in the area of science, technology, and medicine contrast with other portions of the scholarly publishing system such as university presses that are struggling to survive. Two major societal trends, commercialization and irrational rationalization, are explored as factors in the development of distortion in the system, as are potential alternatives, including the commons, state subsidy, DIY publishing, and publishing cooperatives. Original research presented or summarized includes the quarterly series The Dramatic Growth of Open Access, an empirical study of economic possibilities for transition to open access, interviews with scholarly monograph publishers, and an investigation into the potential for transition to open access in the field of communication. The similarities and differences between open access and various Creative Commons licenses are mapped and analyzed.

The conclusion features a set of recommendations for open access. Carefully transitioning the primary economic support for scholarly publishing (academic library budgets) from subscriptions to open access is seen as central to a successful transition. Open access changes the form of the commodity with respect to commercial publication, from the scholarly work per se to the publishing service; a major improvement that overcomes the trend towards enclosure of information, but not necessarily the dominance of the commercial sector. A multi-faceted approach is recommended as optimal to overcome potential vulnerabilities of any single approach to open access. The open access movement is advised to be aware of the less understood societal trend of irrational (or instrumental) rationality, a trend that open access initiatives are just as vulnerable to as subscriptions or purchase-based systems. The remedy for irrational rationality recommended is a systemic or holistic approach. It is recommended that open access be considered part of a potential for broader societal transformation, based on the Internet’s capacity to function as an enabler of many to many communication that could form the basis of either a strong democracy or a decentralized socialism.”

URL : http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/files/2012/12/Morrison-library-copy.pdf

Digital distribution of academic journals and its impact…

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Digital distribution of academic journals and its impact on scholarly communication: Looking back
after 20 years
:

“It has been approximately 20 years since distributing scholarly journals digitally became feasible. This article discusses the broad implications of the transition to digital distributed scholarship from a historical perspective and focuses on the development of open access (OA) and the various models for funding OA in the context of the roles scholarly journals play in scientific communities.”

URL : http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc4/final.pdf

Umgang mit Open Access Publikationsgebühren – die Situation…

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Umgang mit Open-Access-Publikationsgebühren – die Situation in Deutschland in 2010 :

“Mit der dynamischen Entwicklung von Open Access gewinnt die Diskussion um den Umgang mit Gebühren, die für Open-Access-Publikationen anfallen, an Bedeutung. Die deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen widmen sich dieser Diskussion, seit 2008 auch im Rahmen der Schwerpunktinitiative „Digitale Information“. Im Jahr 2010 wurde in einer Umfrage unter Hochschulen und außeruniversitären Forschungsinstitutionen die Praxis im Umgang mit diesen Publikationsgebühren unter die Lupe genommen. Dabei wurde deutlich, dass sich die Wissenschaftsorganisationen des Themas annehmen und bestrebt sind, Mechanismen zu entwickeln, um ihren Angehörigen die Veröffentlichung in Open-Access-Zeitschriften, die sich durch Publikationsgebühren finanzieren, unkompliziert zu ermöglichen. Darüber hinaus zeigt der Blick auf die Open-Access-Strategien der Organisationen, dass diese die Transformation von einem subskriptionsbasierten hin zu einem Open-Access-basierten Publikationssystem vorantreiben. Die Ergebnisse der Umfrage machen jedoch auch die Herausforderungen deutlich. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Landschaft der Open-Access-Zeitschriften, beschreibt die Aktivitäten und Entwicklungen in den Wissenschaftsorganisationen und stellt die Ergebnisse der Erhebung unter wissenschaftlichen Institutionen in Deutschland vor.”

“Along with the dynamic development of open access, the question of how to handle open access publication charges is increasingly discussed. German research organisations have been involved in this discussion as part of their activities within the Priority Initiative “Digital Information” of the “Alliance of German Science Organisations” since 2008. In 2010 they commissioned a survey among universities and research institutions, focusing on their practice in dealing with publication charges. As a result, it became clear that these organisations are aware of the issue. For their members, they seek to develop mechanisms to facilitate publishing in author fee-based open access journals. In general, an overview of the open access strategies of the organisations shows an ongoing transformation process from a subscription-based towards an open access publishing system. However, the survey results also point to challenges. The article gives an overview of open-access related activities and developments in German research organisations and presents the results of the survey on handling of open access publication charges among academic institutions in Germany.”

URL : http://www.egms.de/static/en/journals/mbi/2012-12/mbi000240.shtml

The impact of open access initiative on knowledge sharing

The main focus of this paper is to look at the role of the open access initiative (OAI) as a channel for knowledge sharing that could be used for the disseminate knowledge and research funding. For this purpose OAI was selected for analytical as role communication among the research.

To assess if the articles found in the OAI contents knowledge sharing a method called contextual analysis was used. The result showed that OAI can aptly serve as a tool for disseminate knowledge and sharing ideas. By analysis is these material, OAI might be able to drive benefits directly or indirectly and eventually become beneficial took for scholars in their.

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/10760/17219

Establishment of Institutional Mechanism for Building National Repository…

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Establishment of Institutional Mechanism for Building National Repository in Health Sciences :

“National consolidation of published and unpublished literature in the field of biomedical sciences can playa major role in scholarly communication to help the end users in providing research published in the country.Institutional repositories are a good approach for a cost-effective publishing with a cooperation and participationof each institution for capturing, preserving, managing, and nurturing the discussion. In turn, metadata can be harvested centrally to access the digital information of common interest whereas individual libraries shouldable to preserve digital assets. Institutionalisation mode has been recommended for building national digitalrepository system for the country. The public funding should be provided to apex body so as to formulatethe requisite policies for the spread of open access movement in the country and also formulate a long termsustainable model for building national level system in the country.”

URL : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/2386

Open Access Publishing Practices in a Complex Environment: Conditions, Barriers, and Bases of Power

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The system of scholarly communication is a complex environment made up of various stakeholders including not only researchers, librarians, and publishers, but also academic administrators. This paper examines conditions each group faces while also noting barriers preventing movement toward open access.

To further analyze interrelationships and interdependencies among groups, a discussion is presented using French & Raven’s bases of power to describe how members of each stakeholder group exert some degree of power upon all other groups while at the same time being influenced, either directly or indirectly, by external forces.

A better understanding of the many existing interactions and dependencies can help those who work within this system navigate ongoing changes while more successfully positioning their organizations for the future.

URL : http://jlsc-pub.org/jlsc/vol1/iss1/10/