Cracking Open the Scientific Process

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-08-20

Summary:

"For centuries... research [was] done in private, then submitted to science and medical journals to be reviewed by peers and published for the benefit of other researchers and the public at large. But to many scientists... The system is hidebound, expensive and elitist... advocates for “open science” say science can accomplish much more, much faster, in an environment of friction-free collaboration over the Internet... Open-access archives and journals like arXiv and thePublic Library of Science (PLoS) have sprung up in recent years... And a social networking site called ResearchGate — where scientists can answer one another’s questions, share papers and find collaborators — is rapidly gaining popularity.  Editors of traditional journals say open science sounds good, in theory... Maxine Clarke, executive editor of the commercial journal Nature...added that the traditional published paper is still viewed as 'a unit to award grants or assess jobs and tenure ...' ResearchGate, the social networking site for scientists ... has mushroomed to more than 1.3 million [members]...The Web site is a sort of mash-up of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn... [offering] a simple yet effective end run around restrictive journal access with its 'self-archiving repository...' Changing the status quo — opening data, papers, research ideas and partial solutions to anyone and everyone — is still far more idea than reality. As the established journals argue, they provide a critical service that does not come cheap...the journal Science... 'costs hover around $40 million a year to produce...' Peer-reviewed open-access journals, like Nature Communications and PLoS One, charge their authors publication fees — $5,000 and $1,350, respectively — to defray their more modest expenses...The largest journal publisher, Elsevier ...has drawn considerable criticism from open-access advocates and librarians, who are especially incensed by its support for the Research Works Act, introduced in Congress last month, which seeks to protect publishers’ rights by effectively restricting access to research papers and data... Dr. Madisch, of ResearchGate, acknowledged that he might never reach many of the established scientists for whom social networking can seem like a foreign language or a waste of time. But wait, he said, until younger scientists weaned on social media and open-source collaboration start running their own labs. 'We’re just at the beginning. The change is coming.'”

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/open-science-challenges-journal-tradition-with-web-collaboration.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all

Updated:

08/16/2012, 06:08

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.journals oa.new oa.repositories oa.negative oa.rwa oa.open_science oa.costs oa.tools oa.growth oa.benefits oa.researchgate

Authors:

abernard

Date tagged:

08/20/2012, 15:21

Date published:

01/25/2012, 16:13