The impact of information technology and networks: new perspectives for scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing (original) (raw)
Related papers
2005
The article discusses changes in scientific work (academic and applied) associated with new potentials, but also coercions of information technologies. Background for this interest is the experience gained in several digital library projects that inclinations and willingness to use these technical possibilities is much less common than the developers of these systems, and we all, tended to think in recent years. This seems to be true even in those scientific disciplines which were and are at the forefront of the development, e.g. physics, mathematics, etc. The background for this observation is discussed looking at general economic and social changes, viewing the environments of work in the scientific sphere, the contents and their quantity and quality of supply in scientific IT systems, the user side in their communities of practice, and the technological and organizational basis of scientific information. Some strategic issues to improve the situation are discussed in the final part of the paper.
The Status of Scientific Publication in the Information Age
The principal argument of this paper is that existing practices of scientific publishing ill-fit information-oriented sciences which are fundamentally concerned with complexity, constraint, uncertainty and contingency. It is argued that better exploitation of the full gamut of technological possibilities for scientific communication could support a much richer coordination of understanding between scientists. The barriers to achieving this lie with mechanisms of scarcity production in education, which are fundamentally driven by outdated publication practices. The argument builds on the social ontology of Searle, suggesting that scientific publishing declares " status functions " which simultaneously declare scarcity at many levels of education-in the process feeding economic mechanisms within education which have become pathological. In response, I argue that a richer ecology of types of communication by scholars exploiting and experimenting with new technologies can not only mitigate the pathology of publication, but can create better conditions for the advancement of learning and coordination of scientific understanding.
New practices for electronic publishing 2: New forms of the scientific paper
Learned publishing, 2002
I ntroduction In the previous paper, 1 we critically discussed the main features of a scientific publication. We based this discussion on the report of an International Working Group. We argued that this report is the near-final description of a scientific publication within the traditional document paradigm. The authors carefully touched on all the important intrinsic issues of a scientific communication and listed the requirements that electronic publications have to fulfil. In our discussion of this report, we extended the argument beyond print on paper, and this resulted in a series of concerns. It illustrated that the transformation of scientific information from paper to an electronic carrier is not a simple projection but implies a complete reconsideration of the way in which scholarly communications are produced and read.
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2015
Scholarly publishing and its procedures have evolved rapidly, forcefully, and incredibly. Technical advances in the production and promotion of science content have dramatically augmented the visibility and reach, deepened the impact and intensified the thrust of science journal content. These changes range from checking text on perforated tapes to pit stop; from hot metal types to CTP; and from Gutenberg to colour digital printers. Intrinsic and inextricable to this revolutionary aspect of evolution in scholarly publishing is the evolution of library services in astronomy which catapulted library resources from preprints on shelves to customised digital repositories and from communicating observational data through postal telegrams to Tablets. What impact does this unique blend of revolutionary advances have on science and society, what are the consequent challenges, and what are the opportunities that can metamorphose from challenges inherent in the power and potential of the ‘pub...
Folia Turistica, 2019
Purpose. The presentation of challenges with which scientific journals and-more broadly-scientific communication, will have to face in the substantive, technological and financial sphere in the conditions of constant evolution of the digital world, dynamic development of new information systems in science (e-library, library 2.0) and new phenomena conditioning the behaviour of Internet users. Method. The views presented in the article are the result of a review of literature regarding scientific journals and empirical research, which was conducted from April to August 2018 among 132 authors representing the world of science and economic practices. Findings. The open access (OA) movement has caused significant changes in the behaviour of people of science in publishing and depositing research results. The prospect of taking over all the functions of scientific journals by scientific repositories still seems to be distant due to the lack of alternative methods for assessing the quality of scientific publications. There are doubts about the division into scientific, institutional repositories and the repositories belonging to scientific journals, which results from unclear business models of individual solutions. The phenomenon of self-publishing is stimulated by the dynamic development of research carried out by business units, skilfully analysing the resources of large data sets and successfully popularising research results in social repositories. This is new quality in the area of information exchange, which requires rapid adaptation on scientific grounds. An insufficiently implemented postulate to popularise scientific knowledge and its transfer to business practice remains an equally important challenge. Research and conclusions limitations. The results of the survey based on the respond-ents' subjective assessment should be treated with caution and do not allow to draw general conclusions. The research revealed significant discrepancies in respondents' opinions regarding the future of scientific journals and their prospects for functioning in new information systems. The highest doubts concern the quality assessment system of scientific publications and the business model of scientific repositories: the significant number of stakeholders of the scientific communication system, dispersed in various scientific, political and economic systems, further limits the possibility of formulating unambiguous decisions in this respect. Originality. The presented article formulates challenges for scientific journals whose functions are being increasingly taken over by scientific and social repositories. In contrast to the previously published works, this suggests solutions in the field of artificial intelligence, which will enable complete change in the way of publishing and validation of knowledge as well as quality control of scientific research. Type of work: Review article.
The scientific article in the age of digitization
2006
1-1.txt for the inaugural edition. 4 Henshaw 2001. 5 An important source for the history of early e-journals is a survey by Hitchcock et al. (1996), who at the end of 1995 identified over 100 'online' journals in the domain of science, technology and medicine (STM), of which 35 were 'electronic only'. Another early overview is given by Roes (1994), who identified 39 refereed scientific electronic journals, adding the note that 'compared to the over 130.000 printed journals the phenomenon of the electronic journal seems to be insignificant.' 'in the midst of a radical transformation spurred by advances in computer technology ... the next century may well witness the extinction of the original scientific 'paper' appearing on paper. ... And the long-term effect of electronic preparation and publication of manuscripts may be as profound as when the scientific article evolved from scholarly letter writing and books in the seventeenth century'. 11 The idea of an electronic revolution in scientific communication is related to ideas about the 'liberation from print' and the explosive effects of electronic text. Lanham argues that electronic text will 'disempower the force 9 For a comprehensive review of predictions and speculations regrading the future of academic libraries see Sapp and Gilmour 2002, 2003. 10 Lu et al. 2002. 11 Harmon and Gross 2003, session 5, in marked contrast with the author's more cautious and critical outlook in Gross et al. 2002, p. 231-234: '... whether in the form of ink on paper or pixels on a computer screen, the scientific article will remain the medium of choice for establishing new knowledge claims ...'. ' ... each discipline has very deep rooted reasons for the way it is constructed and the way scholarly activity is undertaken. Fundamental change will only come when the scholars are satisfied it will be in the interests of the discipline. The form of change will be determined from within the discipline rather than from outside sources ...' 22 So while there are many claims for a 'revolutionary' role of the electronic journal, empirical studies seem to indicate a more limited role predicated on conservative mechanisms and traditional cultures of practice within scientific communities. 'However, the communication systems of science (and other social systems) are much older than the computer age, and have, through centuries, developed important characteristics such as source criticism, principles of rhetoric, standards for publishing, and so on. All this represents production, dissemination, and use of information, which is the declared object of research in information science. The understanding of this social system is a precondition for establishing computer-based systems to make the system more efficient.