Scientific Publishing without Publishers (original) (raw)

Re-Engineering the Scientific Publishing Process for the “Internetworked” Global Academic Community

The SciX (Open, self organising repository for scientific information exchange) project is funded by the European Commission in order to demonstrate the feasibility of new alternative models of scientific publishing made possible by the Internet. The project builds upon the previous experience of some of the partners in running an electronic peer reviewed journal and in setting up an e-prints archive. The project includes both theoretical work in making a formal model of the scientific publishing process, to be used as a basis for studying the life-cycle costs of alternative business models, and a demonstrator of a functioning e-prints archive.

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION IN THE WORLD OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES: CONDITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES REGARDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS

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 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.

Les Réalités De L'Accès Ouvert: Comment Les Préjugés Empêchent La Transition Vers Un Nouveau Système D'Édition Scientifique

2016

Open access has grown enormously in he last 5 years and already 30% of all english language STM papers is published in open access. Making open access the default publishing method however is hampered by a set of common misbeliefs especially the idea that open access is low quality science, is too expensive, it is too difficult to convert existing journals to open access, there are no good business models and others.This paper explains the realities of open access that defy many of the reasons why many scientists and universities are still reluctant to fully support open access, especially in the global south. We will show that many of these prevailing ideas on open access are false and are not based on facts. We will also show how better information, a change in mindset and new policies by governments and funding bodies can make open access a reality also for scientists from the global south in the next 5 years