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Scientific notations for the digital era

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Author : Konrad Hinsen

Computers have profoundly changed the way scientific research is done. Whereas the importance of computers as research tools is evident to everyone, the impact of the digital revolution on the representation of scientific knowledge is not yet widely recognized.

An ever increasing part of today’s scientific knowledge is expressed, published, and archived exclusively in the form of software and electronic datasets. In this essay, I compare these digital scientific notations to the the traditional scientific notations that have been used for centuries, showing how the digital notations optimized for computerized processing are often an obstacle to scientific communication and to creative work by human scientists.

I analyze the causes and propose guidelines for the design of more human-friendly digital scientific notations.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.02960

Collaboration at International, National and Institutional Level – Vital in Fostering Open Science

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Authors :Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen, Pirjo-Leena Forsström

Open science and open research provide potential for new discoveries and solutions to global problems, thus are automatically extending beyond the boundaries of an individual research laboratory.

By nature they imply and lead to collaboration among researchers. This collaboration should be established on all possible levels: institutional, national and international. The present paper looks at the situation in Finland, it shows how these collaborations are organized at the various levels.

The special role played by LIBER is evidenced. The advantages of these collaborations are highlighted.

URL : Collaboration at International, National and Institutional Level – Vital in Fostering Open Science

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10157

The Costs of Open and Closed Access: Using the Finnish Research Output as an Example

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Authors : Jyrki Ilva, Markku Antero Laitinen, Jarmo Saarti

The Open Access movement in scientific publishing has been gathering momentum in the European Union and its member states, partly due to the policies of some of its main research funders.

Already we have seen encouraging research results on the effects of openness on the dissemination of scientific outputs. As business models of Open Access publishing are still under development, the aim of our paper is to assess the statistical tools and data that the Finnish libraries currently have for comparing the costs associated with different modes of disseminating scientific publications.

We will also analyse the potential costs associated with Open Access publishing models and compare them with the current cost structure of – mostly – paywalled (PW) access.

The discussion will include a description of current Finnish Open Access policies and their funding models. The financial analysis will be based on the statistical data found in the national Research Library Statistics database and the Finnish National Research Publications database, Juuli.

We will discuss the alternatives on how best to develop statistical tools to estimate the true costs of scientific publishing.

URL : The Costs of Open and Closed Access: Using the Finnish Research Output as an Example

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10137

Agreements between Industry and Academia on Publication Rights : A Retrospective Study of Protocols and Publications of Randomized Clinical Trials

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Authors : Benjamin Kasenda, Erik von Elm, John J. You, Anette Blümle, Yuki Tomonaga, Ramon Saccilotto et al.

Background

Little is known about publication agreements between industry and academic investigators in trial protocols and the consistency of these agreements with corresponding statements in publications.

We aimed to investigate (i) the existence and types of publication agreements in trial protocols, (ii) the completeness and consistency of the reporting of these agreements in subsequent publications, and (iii) the frequency of co-authorship by industry employees.

Methods and Findings

We used a retrospective cohort of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) based on archived protocols approved by six research ethics committees between 13 January 2000 and 25 November 2003.

Only RCTs with industry involvement were eligible. We investigated the documentation of publication agreements in RCT protocols and statements in corresponding journal publications. Of 647 eligible RCT protocols, 456 (70.5%) mentioned an agreement regarding publication of results. Of these 456, 393 (86.2%) documented an industry partner’s right to disapprove or at least review proposed manuscripts; 39 (8.6%) agreements were without constraints of publication.

The remaining 24 (5.3%) protocols referred to separate agreement documents not accessible to us. Of those 432 protocols with an accessible publication agreement, 268 (62.0%) trials were published. Most agreements documented in the protocol were not reported in the subsequent publication (197/268 [73.5%]).

Of 71 agreements reported in publications, 52 (73.2%) were concordant with those documented in the protocol. In 14 of 37 (37.8%) publications in which statements suggested unrestricted publication rights, at least one co-author was an industry employee.

In 25 protocol-publication pairs, author statements in publications suggested no constraints, but 18 corresponding protocols documented restricting agreements.

Conclusions

Publication agreements constraining academic authors’ independence are common. Journal articles seldom report on publication agreements, and, if they do, statements can be discrepant with the trial protocol.

URL : Agreements between Industry and Academia on Publication Rights : A Retrospective Study of Protocols and Publications of Randomized Clinical Trials

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002046

New Horizons for a Data-Driven Economy : A Roadmap for Usage and Exploitation of Big Data in Europe

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Editors : José María Cavanillas, Edward Curry, Wolfgang Wahlster

In this book readers will find technological discussions on the existing and emerging technologies across the different stages of the big data value chain. They will learn about legal aspects of big data, the social impact, and about education needs and requirements.

And they will discover the business perspective and how big data technology can be exploited to deliver value within different sectors of the economy.

URL : New Horizons for a Data-Driven Economy : A Roadmap for Usage and Exploitation of Big Data in Europe

Alternative location : http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-21569-3

 

Research Data in Current Research Information Systems

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Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost,Violaine Rebouillat

The paper provides an overview of recent research and publications on the integration of research data in Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) and addresses three related issues, i.e. the object of evaluation, identifier schemes and conservation.

Our focus is on social sciences and humanities. As research data gradually become a crucial topic of scientific communication and evaluation, current research information systems must be able to consider and manage the great variety and granularity levels of data as sources and results of scientific research.

More empirical and moreover conceptual work is needed to increase our understanding of the reality of research data and the way they can and should be used for the needs and objectives of research evaluation.

The paper contributes to the debate on the evaluation of research data, especially in the environment of open science and open data, and will be helpful in implementing CRIS and research data policies.

URL : http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01331537

Scholarly Communication and the Dilemma of Collective Action : Why Academic Journals Cost Too Much

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Author : John Wenzler

Why has the rise of the Internet – which drastically reduces the cost of distributing information – coincided with drastic increases in the prices that academic libraries pay for access to scholarly journals?

This study argues that libraries are trapped in a collective action dilemma as defined by economist Mancur Olson in The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups.

To truly reduce their costs, librarians would have to build a shared online collection of scholarly resources jointly managed by the academic community as a whole, but individual academic institutions lack the private incentives necessary to invest in a shared collection.

Thus, the management of online scholarly journals has been largely outsourced to publishers who have developed monopoly powers that allow them to increase subscription prices faster than the rate of inflation.

Many librarians consider the Open Access Movement the best response to increased subscription costs, but the current strategies employed to achieve Open Access also are undermined by collective action dilemmas. In conclusion, some alternative strategies are proposed.

URL : http://crl.acrl.org/content/78/2/183.abstract