Theresa Velden - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Theresa Velden
We argue that a key question for the comparison of the field-specific shaping of scientific commu... more We argue that a key question for the comparison of the field-specific shaping of scientific communication systems in the Digital Age is the identification and characterization of the unit of research: scientific collectives and their communication cultures. We address this conceptual and methodological challenge using a combination of ethnographic methods and network analysis. In this paper we present a basic methodological approach that we have developed in a pilot study of research groups in chemistry. Our first results underline the value of combining quantitative and qualitative methods.
Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Feb 1, 2013
ABSTRACT This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge ba... more ABSTRACT This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge based on a comparative ethnographic field study of research groups in two research specialties. Tensions between cooperation and openness on the one hand and competition for priority and secrecy on the other hand are common in science. However, fields differ in how these tensions play out, influencing what information is exchanged when and how among research groups in a field. This paper develops an explanatory framework that identifies assumptions made in the generic model of the collective production process in the sciences and specifies epistemic and material field characteristics that affect to what extent those assumptions hold for a specific field, explaining field differences in openness and secrecy behaviors. I suggest that these field-inherent sources for differences in openness and sharing behaviors need to be accounted for in research policies and in the design of information and communication systems that aim to support and advance the collective production of knowledge in science.
Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web - WWW '15 Companion, 2015
We are investigating the manner in which different scientific fields differ in their communicatio... more We are investigating the manner in which different scientific fields differ in their communication cultures. Our research methodology combines quantitative (graph-theoretic) and qualitative (ethnographic) techniques, which mutually inform each other. In this paper, we present the results of a case study on the identification and classification of scientific collaborations based on structural patterns in co-authorship networks. We investigate three co-authorship networks in specialised subfields of organic chemistry and physical chemistry using an information-theoretic clustering algorithm by Rosvall et al. to extract the modular structure of the networks and thereby investigate the mesoscopic structures of these networks. The clusters found mostly correspond to hierarchically organised research groups or multi-centre research networks. Based on the co-author links between these clusters we analyse group and network interactions, using interviews with participants from the fields in question to inform our interpretation. Structurally one can distinguish two broad classes of linking patterns between clusters: 'exclusive' connections where a single node (author) connects two clusters, and 'manyto-many' connections where substantial fractions of the nodes of both clusters are involved. Within these broad classes one can find further subclasses that correspond to typical collaboration and mobility events.
• To serve as input for an international workshop of academic and industrial chemists, informatio... more • To serve as input for an international workshop of academic and industrial chemists, information scientists, publishers, scientific society representatives, and information service providers to validate and refine the analysis presented here, and to develop recommendations for action and further research Contributions:
Scientometrics, 2010
This paper focuses on methods to study patterns of collaboration in co-authorship networks at the... more This paper focuses on methods to study patterns of collaboration in co-authorship networks at the mesoscopic level. We combine qualitative methods (participant interviews) with quantitative methods (network analysis) and demonstrate the application and value of our approach in a case study comparing three research fields in chemistry. A mesoscopic level of analysis means that in addition to the basic analytic unit of the individual researcher as node in a co-author network, we base our analysis on the observed modular structure of co-author networks. We interpret the clustering of authors into groups as bibliometric footprints of the basic collective units of knowledge production in a research specialty. We find two types of coauthor-linking patterns between author clusters that we interpret as representing two different forms of cooperative behavior, transfer-type connections due to career migrations or one-off services rendered, and stronger, dedicated inter-group collaboration. Hence the generic coauthor network of a research specialty can be understood as the overlay of two distinct types of cooperative networks between groups of authors publishing in a research specialty. We show how our analytic approach exposes field specific differences in the social organization of research.
Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2014
In this paper we report results of our investigation of temporal patterns in the publication acti... more In this paper we report results of our investigation of temporal patterns in the publication activity of authors in a research specialty. We base our analysis on Web of Science data for a field in the physical and chemical sciences from 1991-2012. We determine the research groups in the field by clustering the co-author network and generate our sample for this analysis by selecting the most productive author of each co-author cluster to represent the activity of that group. Whereas a statistical time series analysis did not reveal any specific patterns, a time series clustering approach generated a grouping of time series that correlates with the structural network position ('node role') of the respective authors in the clustered co-author network. This work is part of a long-term research project employing a mix of qualitative and network analytic methods to investigate field-specific differences in collaborative patterns.
Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '08, 2008
Although in-car GPS navigation technology is proliferating, it is not well understood how its use... more Although in-car GPS navigation technology is proliferating, it is not well understood how its use alters the ways people interpret their environment and navigate through it. We argue that GPS-based car navigation might disengage people from their surrounding environment, but also has the potential to open up novel ways to engage with it. We present an ethnographically-informed study with GPS users, showing evidence for practices of disengagement as well as new opportunities for engagement, illustrating our findings using rich descriptions from the field. Grounded in our observations we propose design principles for GPS systems that support richer experiences of driving. We argue that for a fuller understanding of issues of disengagement and engagement with the environment we need to move beyond a focus on the (re)design of GPS devices, and point to future directions of work that embrace a broader perspective.
Proceeding of the 11th annual international ACM/IEEE joint conference on Digital libraries - JCDL '11, 2011
We investigate how author name homonymy distorts clustered large-scale co-author networks, and pr... more We investigate how author name homonymy distorts clustered large-scale co-author networks, and present a simple, effective, scalable and generalizable algorithm to ameliorate such distortions. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm to improve the resolution of mesoscopic network structures. To this end, we establish the ground truth for a sample of author names that is statistically representative of different types of nodes in the co-author network, distinguished by their role for the connectivity of the network. We finally observe that this distinction of node roles based on the mesoscopic structure of the network, in combination with a quantification of author name commonality, suggests a new approach to assess network distortion by homonymy and to analyze the reduction of distortion in the network after disambiguation, without requiring ground truth sampling.
Proceedings of the 2012 iConference on - iConference '12, 2012
ABSTRACT We will present the multistep process for generating bibliometric mappings of research f... more ABSTRACT We will present the multistep process for generating bibliometric mappings of research fields and their community structure, a process that we have developed using a combination of network analysis and ethnographic field studies of scientific communities. We suggest that such maps are useful to support the strategic sampling of ethnographic field sites and the transparent scaling-up of ethnographic findings for the comparative study of collaboration and communication practices across scientific fields.
Motivation und Ziele beim Aufbau des eDoc Services eDoc Nutzungsszenarien Status & Ausblick Disku... more Motivation und Ziele beim Aufbau des eDoc Services eDoc Nutzungsszenarien Status & Ausblick Diskussion
Report on the Berlin Open Access Conference from 20th-22nd Oktober 2003. Open Access: Geschichte ... more Report on the Berlin Open Access Conference from 20th-22nd Oktober 2003. Open Access: Geschichte und Argumente / Berliner Konferenz 20-22 Oktober 2003 / Zielsetzung, Einladungskreis, Programm / Die Berliner Erklärung / Umsetzung - Wie weiter ?
Intervention à la préconférence au congrès LIBER 2004 organisée par SPARC Europe. Présentation du... more Intervention à la préconférence au congrès LIBER 2004 organisée par SPARC Europe. Présentation du programme de développement de l'information scientifique en ligne (accès, OAI) en Allemagne mené par la Société Max-Planck pour le développement de la science.
Intervention à la 33e conférence générale annuelle de la Ligue des bibliothèques européennes de r... more Intervention à la 33e conférence générale annuelle de la Ligue des bibliothèques européennes de recherche (Liber).
Die bibliografischen Angaben aller Publikationen eines Instituts werden seit 2003 auf dem eDoc-Se... more Die bibliografischen Angaben aller Publikationen eines Instituts werden seit 2003 auf dem eDoc-Server der MPG unter http://edoc.mpg.de in Formulare eingegeben und auf diese Weise strukturiert in einer Datenbank erfasst, dauerhaft archiviert und für unterschiedliche Zwecke verfügbar gemacht. Dazu wird das bisherige Verfahren, die Publikationsdaten in Listen zu sammeln und dann als rtf-/Text- oder WORD-Datei an das Referat für Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit zu schicken, abgelöst.
This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge based on a ... more This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge based on a comparative ethnographic field study of research groups in two research specialties. Tensions between cooperation and openness on the one hand and competition for priority and secrecy on the other hand are common in science. However, fields differ in how these tensions play out, influencing what information is exchanged when and how among research groups in a field. This paper develops an explanatory framework that identifies assumptions made in the generic model of the collective production process in the sciences and specifies epistemic and material field characteristics that affect to what extent those assumptions hold for a specific field, explaining field differences in openness and secrecy behaviors. I suggest that these field-inherent sources for differences in openness and sharing behaviors need to be accounted for in research policies and in the design of information and communi...
Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society was founded in 2001, si... more Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society was founded in 2001, situated in Garching/Munich. Its mission is to innovate the management of scientific information in MPS, to enable institutes and society to shape future of scholarly communication. Its firs t projects were: Max Planck Virtual Library http://vlib.mpg.de, Institutional Repository http://edoc.mpg.de, Pilot projects: Primary Source Collections (History of Science, History of Art) Living Reviews Journal Family http://www.livingreviews.org and ePublishing Tools http://www.zim.mpg.de/projects/
With the eDoc-Server the Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Societ... more With the eDoc-Server the Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society (ZIM) provides the research institutes of the Max Planck Society (MPS) with a platform to disseminate, store, and manage their scientific output. Moreover, eDoc serves as a tool to facilitate and promote open access to scientific information and primary sources. Since its introduction in October 2002 eDoc has gained high visibility within the MPS. It has been backed by strong institutional commitment to open access as documented in the ‘Berlin Declaration on Open Access to the Data of the Sciences and Humanities’, which was initiated by the MPS and found large support by major research organizations in Europe. This paper will outline the concept as well as the current status of the eDoc-Server, providing an example for the development and introduction of an institutional repository in a multi-disciplinary research organization.
Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing - CSCW Companion '14, 2014
ABSTRACT This one-day workshop aims to stimulate research on the sharing and reuse of scientific ... more ABSTRACT This one-day workshop aims to stimulate research on the sharing and reuse of scientific resources in cooperative scientific work. As science trends toward increasing geographic and temporal scales, larger collaborations, and greater interdisciplinarity, scientific resources increasingly need to be more mobile and integrated with computer supported information and communication environments. Sharing, reuse and circulation of resources become a central challenge and critical component of cooperative scientific work. We interpret sharing broadly to include circulating scientific materials in any way that makes them available to other scientists. We include a variety of resources such as data, software, materials and specimens, workflows, technical know-how, clinical and laboratory protocols, and algorithms. We explore a range of sharing and reuse practices past and present, what motivates and limits them, how sharing can be done more effectively, what tools and techniques facilitate or constrain it, and how this relates to systems and science policy.
We argue that a key question for the comparison of the field-specific shaping of scientific commu... more We argue that a key question for the comparison of the field-specific shaping of scientific communication systems in the Digital Age is the identification and characterization of the unit of research: scientific collectives and their communication cultures. We address this conceptual and methodological challenge using a combination of ethnographic methods and network analysis. In this paper we present a basic methodological approach that we have developed in a pilot study of research groups in chemistry. Our first results underline the value of combining quantitative and qualitative methods.
Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Feb 1, 2013
ABSTRACT This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge ba... more ABSTRACT This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge based on a comparative ethnographic field study of research groups in two research specialties. Tensions between cooperation and openness on the one hand and competition for priority and secrecy on the other hand are common in science. However, fields differ in how these tensions play out, influencing what information is exchanged when and how among research groups in a field. This paper develops an explanatory framework that identifies assumptions made in the generic model of the collective production process in the sciences and specifies epistemic and material field characteristics that affect to what extent those assumptions hold for a specific field, explaining field differences in openness and secrecy behaviors. I suggest that these field-inherent sources for differences in openness and sharing behaviors need to be accounted for in research policies and in the design of information and communication systems that aim to support and advance the collective production of knowledge in science.
Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web - WWW '15 Companion, 2015
We are investigating the manner in which different scientific fields differ in their communicatio... more We are investigating the manner in which different scientific fields differ in their communication cultures. Our research methodology combines quantitative (graph-theoretic) and qualitative (ethnographic) techniques, which mutually inform each other. In this paper, we present the results of a case study on the identification and classification of scientific collaborations based on structural patterns in co-authorship networks. We investigate three co-authorship networks in specialised subfields of organic chemistry and physical chemistry using an information-theoretic clustering algorithm by Rosvall et al. to extract the modular structure of the networks and thereby investigate the mesoscopic structures of these networks. The clusters found mostly correspond to hierarchically organised research groups or multi-centre research networks. Based on the co-author links between these clusters we analyse group and network interactions, using interviews with participants from the fields in question to inform our interpretation. Structurally one can distinguish two broad classes of linking patterns between clusters: 'exclusive' connections where a single node (author) connects two clusters, and 'manyto-many' connections where substantial fractions of the nodes of both clusters are involved. Within these broad classes one can find further subclasses that correspond to typical collaboration and mobility events.
• To serve as input for an international workshop of academic and industrial chemists, informatio... more • To serve as input for an international workshop of academic and industrial chemists, information scientists, publishers, scientific society representatives, and information service providers to validate and refine the analysis presented here, and to develop recommendations for action and further research Contributions:
Scientometrics, 2010
This paper focuses on methods to study patterns of collaboration in co-authorship networks at the... more This paper focuses on methods to study patterns of collaboration in co-authorship networks at the mesoscopic level. We combine qualitative methods (participant interviews) with quantitative methods (network analysis) and demonstrate the application and value of our approach in a case study comparing three research fields in chemistry. A mesoscopic level of analysis means that in addition to the basic analytic unit of the individual researcher as node in a co-author network, we base our analysis on the observed modular structure of co-author networks. We interpret the clustering of authors into groups as bibliometric footprints of the basic collective units of knowledge production in a research specialty. We find two types of coauthor-linking patterns between author clusters that we interpret as representing two different forms of cooperative behavior, transfer-type connections due to career migrations or one-off services rendered, and stronger, dedicated inter-group collaboration. Hence the generic coauthor network of a research specialty can be understood as the overlay of two distinct types of cooperative networks between groups of authors publishing in a research specialty. We show how our analytic approach exposes field specific differences in the social organization of research.
Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2014
In this paper we report results of our investigation of temporal patterns in the publication acti... more In this paper we report results of our investigation of temporal patterns in the publication activity of authors in a research specialty. We base our analysis on Web of Science data for a field in the physical and chemical sciences from 1991-2012. We determine the research groups in the field by clustering the co-author network and generate our sample for this analysis by selecting the most productive author of each co-author cluster to represent the activity of that group. Whereas a statistical time series analysis did not reveal any specific patterns, a time series clustering approach generated a grouping of time series that correlates with the structural network position ('node role') of the respective authors in the clustered co-author network. This work is part of a long-term research project employing a mix of qualitative and network analytic methods to investigate field-specific differences in collaborative patterns.
Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '08, 2008
Although in-car GPS navigation technology is proliferating, it is not well understood how its use... more Although in-car GPS navigation technology is proliferating, it is not well understood how its use alters the ways people interpret their environment and navigate through it. We argue that GPS-based car navigation might disengage people from their surrounding environment, but also has the potential to open up novel ways to engage with it. We present an ethnographically-informed study with GPS users, showing evidence for practices of disengagement as well as new opportunities for engagement, illustrating our findings using rich descriptions from the field. Grounded in our observations we propose design principles for GPS systems that support richer experiences of driving. We argue that for a fuller understanding of issues of disengagement and engagement with the environment we need to move beyond a focus on the (re)design of GPS devices, and point to future directions of work that embrace a broader perspective.
Proceeding of the 11th annual international ACM/IEEE joint conference on Digital libraries - JCDL '11, 2011
We investigate how author name homonymy distorts clustered large-scale co-author networks, and pr... more We investigate how author name homonymy distorts clustered large-scale co-author networks, and present a simple, effective, scalable and generalizable algorithm to ameliorate such distortions. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm to improve the resolution of mesoscopic network structures. To this end, we establish the ground truth for a sample of author names that is statistically representative of different types of nodes in the co-author network, distinguished by their role for the connectivity of the network. We finally observe that this distinction of node roles based on the mesoscopic structure of the network, in combination with a quantification of author name commonality, suggests a new approach to assess network distortion by homonymy and to analyze the reduction of distortion in the network after disambiguation, without requiring ground truth sampling.
Proceedings of the 2012 iConference on - iConference '12, 2012
ABSTRACT We will present the multistep process for generating bibliometric mappings of research f... more ABSTRACT We will present the multistep process for generating bibliometric mappings of research fields and their community structure, a process that we have developed using a combination of network analysis and ethnographic field studies of scientific communities. We suggest that such maps are useful to support the strategic sampling of ethnographic field sites and the transparent scaling-up of ethnographic findings for the comparative study of collaboration and communication practices across scientific fields.
Motivation und Ziele beim Aufbau des eDoc Services eDoc Nutzungsszenarien Status & Ausblick Disku... more Motivation und Ziele beim Aufbau des eDoc Services eDoc Nutzungsszenarien Status & Ausblick Diskussion
Report on the Berlin Open Access Conference from 20th-22nd Oktober 2003. Open Access: Geschichte ... more Report on the Berlin Open Access Conference from 20th-22nd Oktober 2003. Open Access: Geschichte und Argumente / Berliner Konferenz 20-22 Oktober 2003 / Zielsetzung, Einladungskreis, Programm / Die Berliner Erklärung / Umsetzung - Wie weiter ?
Intervention à la préconférence au congrès LIBER 2004 organisée par SPARC Europe. Présentation du... more Intervention à la préconférence au congrès LIBER 2004 organisée par SPARC Europe. Présentation du programme de développement de l'information scientifique en ligne (accès, OAI) en Allemagne mené par la Société Max-Planck pour le développement de la science.
Intervention à la 33e conférence générale annuelle de la Ligue des bibliothèques européennes de r... more Intervention à la 33e conférence générale annuelle de la Ligue des bibliothèques européennes de recherche (Liber).
Die bibliografischen Angaben aller Publikationen eines Instituts werden seit 2003 auf dem eDoc-Se... more Die bibliografischen Angaben aller Publikationen eines Instituts werden seit 2003 auf dem eDoc-Server der MPG unter http://edoc.mpg.de in Formulare eingegeben und auf diese Weise strukturiert in einer Datenbank erfasst, dauerhaft archiviert und für unterschiedliche Zwecke verfügbar gemacht. Dazu wird das bisherige Verfahren, die Publikationsdaten in Listen zu sammeln und dann als rtf-/Text- oder WORD-Datei an das Referat für Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit zu schicken, abgelöst.
This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge based on a ... more This paper explores field differences in openness and sharing of scientific knowledge based on a comparative ethnographic field study of research groups in two research specialties. Tensions between cooperation and openness on the one hand and competition for priority and secrecy on the other hand are common in science. However, fields differ in how these tensions play out, influencing what information is exchanged when and how among research groups in a field. This paper develops an explanatory framework that identifies assumptions made in the generic model of the collective production process in the sciences and specifies epistemic and material field characteristics that affect to what extent those assumptions hold for a specific field, explaining field differences in openness and secrecy behaviors. I suggest that these field-inherent sources for differences in openness and sharing behaviors need to be accounted for in research policies and in the design of information and communi...
Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society was founded in 2001, si... more Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society was founded in 2001, situated in Garching/Munich. Its mission is to innovate the management of scientific information in MPS, to enable institutes and society to shape future of scholarly communication. Its firs t projects were: Max Planck Virtual Library http://vlib.mpg.de, Institutional Repository http://edoc.mpg.de, Pilot projects: Primary Source Collections (History of Science, History of Art) Living Reviews Journal Family http://www.livingreviews.org and ePublishing Tools http://www.zim.mpg.de/projects/
With the eDoc-Server the Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Societ... more With the eDoc-Server the Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society (ZIM) provides the research institutes of the Max Planck Society (MPS) with a platform to disseminate, store, and manage their scientific output. Moreover, eDoc serves as a tool to facilitate and promote open access to scientific information and primary sources. Since its introduction in October 2002 eDoc has gained high visibility within the MPS. It has been backed by strong institutional commitment to open access as documented in the ‘Berlin Declaration on Open Access to the Data of the Sciences and Humanities’, which was initiated by the MPS and found large support by major research organizations in Europe. This paper will outline the concept as well as the current status of the eDoc-Server, providing an example for the development and introduction of an institutional repository in a multi-disciplinary research organization.
Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing - CSCW Companion '14, 2014
ABSTRACT This one-day workshop aims to stimulate research on the sharing and reuse of scientific ... more ABSTRACT This one-day workshop aims to stimulate research on the sharing and reuse of scientific resources in cooperative scientific work. As science trends toward increasing geographic and temporal scales, larger collaborations, and greater interdisciplinarity, scientific resources increasingly need to be more mobile and integrated with computer supported information and communication environments. Sharing, reuse and circulation of resources become a central challenge and critical component of cooperative scientific work. We interpret sharing broadly to include circulating scientific materials in any way that makes them available to other scientists. We include a variety of resources such as data, software, materials and specimens, workflows, technical know-how, clinical and laboratory protocols, and algorithms. We explore a range of sharing and reuse practices past and present, what motivates and limits them, how sharing can be done more effectively, what tools and techniques facilitate or constrain it, and how this relates to systems and science policy.