Blogs and blogging Current trends and future directions…

Blogs and blogging: Current trends and future directions :

“Adopting an interdisciplinary scope, this paper presents a review of research on blogs and blogging within the social sciences and the humanities. It maps out what kind of research has been completed, how it has been performed and what gaps that might need to be filled in this relatively new area of research. More specifically, the paper will analyze all articles on blogs and blogging published until 2009 and indexed by the ISI Web of Knowledge.”

URL : http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3101/2836

Beyond the Data Deluge A Research Agenda for…

Beyond the Data Deluge: A Research Agenda for Large-Scale Data Sharing and Reuse :

“There is almost universal agreement that scientific data should be shared for use beyond the purposes for which they were initially collected. Access to data enables system-level science, expands the instruments and products of research to new communities, and advances solutions to complex human problems. While demands for data are not new, the vision of open access to data is increasingly ambitious. The aim is to make data accessible and usable to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and for any purpose. Until recently, scholarly investigations related to data sharing and reuse were sparse. They have become more common as technology and instrumentation have advanced, policies that mandate sharing have been implemented, and research has become more interdisciplinary. Each of these factors has contributed to what is commonly referred to as the “data deluge”. Most discussions about increases in the scale of sharing and reuse have focused on growing amounts of data. There are other issues related to open access to data that also concern scale which have not been as widely discussed: broader participation in data sharing and reuse, increases in the number and types of intermediaries, and more digital data products. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research agenda for scientific data sharing and reuse that considers these three areas.”

URL : http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/163

Open Science in Practice: Researcher Perspectives and Participation

We report on an exploratory study consisting of brief case studies in selected disciplines, examining what motivates researchers to work (or want to work) in an open manner with regard to their data, results and protocols, and whether advantages are delivered by working in this way. We review the policy background to open science, and literature on the benefits attributed to open data, considering how these relate to curation and to questions of who participates in science.

The case studies investigate the perceived benefits to researchers, research institutions and funding bodies of utilising open scientific methods, the disincentives and barriers, and the degree to which there is evidence to support these perceptions. Six case study groups were selected in astronomy, bioinformatics, chemistry, epidemiology, language technology and neuroimaging.

The studies identify relevant examples and issues through qualitative analysis of interview transcripts. We provide a typology of degrees of open working across the research lifecycle, and conclude that better support for open working, through guidelines to assist research groups in identifying the value and costs of working more openly, and further research to assess the risks, incentives and shifts in responsibility entailed by opening up the research process are needed.

URL : http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/173

Linking to Scientific Data Identity Problems of Unruly…

Linking to Scientific Data: Identity Problems of Unruly and Poorly Bounded Digital Objects :

“Within information systems, a significant aspect of search and retrieval across information objects, such as datasets, journal articles, or images, relies on the identity construction of the objects. This paper uses identity to refer to the qualities or characteristics of an information object that make it definable and recognizable, and can be used to distinguish it from other objects. Identity, in this context, can be seen as the foundation from which citations, metadata and identifiers are constructed.

In recent years the idea of including datasets within the scientific record has been gaining significant momentum, with publishers, granting agencies and libraries engaging with the challenge. However, the task has been fraught with questions of best practice for establishing this infrastructure, especially in regards to how citations, metadata and identifiers should be constructed. These questions suggests a problem with how dataset identities are formed, such that an engagement with the definition of datasets as conceptual objects is warranted.

This paper explores some of the ways in which scientific data is an unruly and poorly bounded object, and goes on to propose that in order for datasets to fulfill the roles expected for them, the following identity functions are essential for scholarly publications: (i) the dataset is constructed as a semantically and logically concrete object, (ii) the identity of the dataset is embedded, inherent and/or inseparable, (iii) the identity embodies a framework of authorship, rights and limitations, and (iv) the identity translates into an actionable mechanism for retrieval or reference.”

URL : http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/174

It’s not filter failure it’s a discovery deficit…

It’s not filter failure, it’s a discovery deficit :

“The web has changed our information-seeking behaviour radically, yet scholarly communication remains firmly embedded in the traditions of the print world. Here, I argue that the dropping costs of publication and distribution mean that effort and resource expended on preventing publication is wasted and that developing the tools and culture for post-publication annotation, curation and ranking is more productive. Rather than see this as information overload, or in Clay Shirky’s words, a ‘filter failure’, I propose that it is more useful to see the problem as a ‘discovery deficit’. This flood of content, instead of being a problem, is an opportunity to build technical and cultural frameworks that will enable us to extract more value from the outputs of research by exploiting the efficiencies that web-based systems can provide.”

URL : http://uksg.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,7,25;journal,1,71;linkingpublicationresults,1:107730,1

The need and drive for open data in…

The need and drive for open data in biomedical publishing :

“The concept of open data goes beyond making data freely available. Data must also be free to reuse and build upon without legal or technical impediments. Funder and journal policies for data sharing and the growing open science movement are helping open data to spread across biomedical sub-disciplines. Editors should embrace open data to ensure that their decisions can stand up to close scrutiny; journals need open data to help them fulfil their stated goals, and publishers should utilize open data and data publication to serve the growing sector of the scientific community requiring it as a service, and to continue developing novel forms of scholarly communication in an increasingly data-intensive scholarly communication environment.”

URL : http://uksg.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,9,25;journal,1,71;linkingpublicationresults,1:107730,1;

Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship …

Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship :

“To date, there have been no studies focusing exclusively on the impact of open access on legal scholarship. We examine open access articles from three journals at the University of Georgia School of Law and confirm that legal scholarship freely available via open access improves an article’s research impact. Open access legal scholarship – which today appears to account for almost half of the output of law faculties – can expect to receive 50% more citations than non-open access writings of similar age from the same venue.”

URL : http://works.bepress.com/james_donovan/64/