EN

Open access to scientific knowledge and feudalism knowledge: Is there a connection?

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

The role of universities and transnational corporations in the circulation of scientific knowledge is considered. If institutions generate, mostly scientific knowledge, trying to facilitate its free circulation, then transnational companies, contrarily, try to remove most significant and cutting-edge scientific knowledge from free circulation and its commercialization and reintroduction into an open, but now commercial, circulation in the TRIPS.

However, paradoxical, the open access movement to scientific knowledge, eventually, facilitates feudalism of knowledge. We call this phenomenon the ‘open access – paradox’. Based on the experiments done with Google Scholar and Google Patents, it is shown that universities generates, mostly scientific knowledge (scientific articles), and transnational companies generates, mostly technological knowledge (patents).

URL : http://www.webology.org/2011/v8n1/a83.html

status

Wikis in scholarly publishing Scientific research is…

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Wikis in scholarly publishing :

« Scientific research is a process concerned with the creation, collective accumulation, contextualization, updating and maintenance of knowledge. Wikis provide an environment that allows to collectively accumulate, contextualize, update and maintain knowledge in a coherent and transparent fashion. Here, we examine the potential of wikis as platforms for scholarly publishing. In the hope to stimulate further discussion, the article itself was drafted on Species ID – http://species-id.net; a wiki that hosts a prototype for wiki-based scholarly publishing – where it can be updated, expanded or otherwise improved. »

URL : http://iospress.metapress.com/content/q42617538838t6j2/

status

Open access journals – what publishers offer what…

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Open access journals – what publishers offer, what researchers want :

« The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project has analyzed the current supply and demand situation in the open access journal landscape. Starting from the Directory of Open Access Journals, several sources of data were considered, including journal websites and direct inquiries within the publishing industry to comprehensively map the present supply of online peer-reviewed OA journals. The demand for open access publishing is summarised, as assessed through a large-scale survey of researchers’ opinions and attitudes. Some forty thousand answers were collected across disciplines and around the world, reflecting major support for the idea of open access, while highlighting drivers of and barriers to open access publishing. »

URL : http://iospress.metapress.com/content/2j27028w417x60v8/

status

Extracting Transforming and Archiving Scientific Data It…

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Extracting, Transforming and Archiving Scientific Data :

« It is becoming common to archive research datasets that are not only large but also numerous. In addition, their corresponding metadata and the software required to analyse or display them need to be archived. Yet the manual curation of research data can be difficult and expensive, particularly in very large digital repositories, hence the importance of models and tools for automating digital curation tasks. The automation of these tasks faces three major challenges: (1) research data and data sources are highly heterogeneous, (2) future research needs are difficult to anticipate, (3) data is hard to index. To address these problems, we propose the Extract, Transform and Archive (ETA) model for managing and mechanizing the curation of research data. Specifically, we propose a scalable strategy for addressing the research-data problem, ranging from the extraction of legacy data to its long-term storage. We review some existing solutions and propose novel avenues of research. »

URL : http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4041

status

Publication Fees in Open Access Publishing Sources of…

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Publication Fees in Open Access Publishing: Sources of Funding and Factors Influencing Choice of Journal :

« Open access (OA) journals make their full text content available for free on the Web and use other means than subscriptions or access charges for funding the publication process. Publication fees or article processing charges (APC)s have become the predominant means for funding professional OA publishing. We surveyed 1,038 authors from seven discipline categories who recently published articles in 74 OA journals that charge APCs. Authors were asked about the source of funding for the APC, factors influencing their choice of a journal and past history publishing in OA and subscription journals. Additional information about the journal and the authors’ country were obtained from the journal websites. A total of 429 (41%) authors completed the survey. There were large differences in the source of funding among disciplines. Journals with impact factors charged higher APCs as did journals from disciplines where grant funding is plentiful. Topical fit, quality, and speed of publication where the most important factors in the authors’ choice of a journal. Open accessibility was less important but a significant factor for many authors in their choice of a journal to publish. These findings are consistent with other research on OA publishing and suggest, that if OA journals meet normal quality standards, authors and their employers and funders are willing to pay reasonable APCs, the acceptable levels of which are dependent on the field of science and the quality of the journal in question. »

URL : http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc/

status

On the Lack of Consensus over the Meaning…

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

On the Lack of Consensus over the Meaning of Openness: An Empirical Study :

« This study set out to explore the views and motivations of those involved in a number of recent and current advocacy efforts (such as open science, computational provenance, and reproducible research) aimed at making science and scientific artifacts accessible to a wider audience. Using a exploratory approach, the study tested whether a consensus exists among advocates of these initiatives about the key concepts, exploring the meanings that scientists attach to the various mechanisms for sharing their work, and the social context in which this takes place. The study used a purposive sampling strategy to target scientists who have been active participants in these advocacy efforts, and an open-ended questionnaire to collect detailed opinions on the topics of reproducibility, credibility, scooping, data sharing, results sharing, and the effectiveness of the peer review process. We found evidence of a lack of agreement on the meaning of key terminology, and a lack of consensus on some of the broader goals of these advocacy efforts. These results can be explained through a closer examination of the divergent goals and approaches adopted by different advocacy efforts. We suggest that the scientific community could benefit from a broader discussion of what it means to make scientific research more accessible and how this might best be achieved. »

URL : http://goo.gl/pEvoH
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023420

FR

Les revues électroniques scientifiques : stratégies éditoriales et médiation de l’information

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Author : Moncef Mehrezi

Depuis quelques années on assiste à la naissance d’un nouveau modèle d’édition. il trouve ses origines dans l’édition classique sur support papier et qui s’inspire des nouvelles technologies de la communication comme outil de production et de diffusion.

L’édition électronique a suivi l’évolution, on peut mieux exploiter les capacités de l’Internet, augmenter l’efficacité des liens hypertexte et améliorer l’interactivité tant la production d’un éditeur commercial que dans une bibliothèque universitaire.

L’innovation est dans ce sens un concept de base, fondateur dans ce domaine, elle concerne les éditeurs qui réalisent de nouveaux produits et proposent des services à valeur ajoutée. Mais aussi la bibliothèque en tant que médiateur de l’information via les nouvelles technologies.

Le contexte actuel de l’édition est en pleine mutation, les changements sont énormes et l’impact des TIC est de plus en plus important. Les nouvelles technologies participent réellement à la reconfiguration des pratiques éditoriales.

La chaîne classique de l’édition basée sur le papier est en train de changer voir disparaitre dans puiseurs disciplines comme la médecine, la physique ou les mathématiques.

URL : http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00548152/fr/