[Web4lib] New Additions to The _Scholarship 2.0_ Blog

Sun Aug 9 14:57:30 EDT 2009

Colleagues/

I am pleased to announce the addition of several major additions to the
_Scholarship 2.0_ blog_

/Gerry 

>>> Citation Distortions > Unfounded Authority 

Conclusion

Citation is both an impartial scholarly method and a powerful form of
social communication. Through distortions in its social use that include
bias, amplification, and invention, citation can be used to generate
information cascades resulting in unfounded authority of claims.
Construction and analysis of a claim specific citation network may
clarify the nature of a published belief system and expose distorted
methods of social citation. 

http://tinyurl.com/nj9gm4 

>>> From Publishing to Knowledge Networks: Reinventing Online Knowledge
Infrastructures 

Abstract

Today's publishing infrastructure is rapidly changing. As electronic
journals, digital libraries, collaboratories, logic servers, and other
knowledge infrastructures emerge on the internet, the key aspects of
this transformation need to be identified. Here, the author details the
implications that this transformation is having on the creation,
dissemination and organization of academic knowledge. 

The author shows that many established publishing principles need to be
given up in order to facilitate this transformation.

Overview

1. Leveraging information technology for science 1

1.1. Motivation 1

1.2. Analytical focus 5

1.3. Objectives 7

1.4. Approach 7

2. Characteristics of scientific knowledge infrastructures 9

2.1. Theoretical analysis 10

2.2. Empirical analysis: Emerging knowledge infrastructures 34

2.3. Visions of scientific knowledge infrastructures 55

2.4. Synthesis 57

3. Structure of scientific knowledge 83

3.1. Objectives 83

3.2. Theoretical foundations 87

3.3. Object-oriented model of scientific knowledge 102

3.4. Elements of scientific knowledge 124

4. Implications 187

4.1. Feasibility: IS Cybrarium 187

4.2. Conclusion 196 

http://tinyurl.com/l5a86b 

>>>The Scientific Paper in the Age of Twitter / Walter Benjamin and Biz
Stone 

One need only to imagine what tweets, twoops, formal corrections, and
comments might decorate these passages on PLoSOne today. Pauling,
Chargaff, Avery, Meselson, Cairns, Donohue, Perutz, Franklin, and
Wilkins would have had their say:

This structure has novel features COMMENT: YEAH! HYDROGEN BONDING,
LINUS!) which are of considerable biological interest. COMMENT: FOR
WHICH I WROTE THE CHEMISTRY, ERWIN FORMAL CORRECTION: IT'S THE GENETIC
MATERIAL, YOU FOOLS!, GENES! OSWALD

It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing FORMAL
CORRECTION: BASE PAIRING A/T=G/C, ERWIN we have postulated immediately
suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. COMMENT:
LIKE WHAT? CONSERVED? SEMI? MATT COMMENT: MORTAL OR IMMORTAL? CAIRNS 

We are much indebted to Dr. Jerry Donohue for constant advice and
criticism, especially on interatomic distances. FORMAL CORRECTION: SEZ
YOU! I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE KETO TO ENOL TAUTOMERS. YOU KNEW SQUAT FROM
THE CHEMISTRY! JERRY We have also been stimulated by a knowledge of the
general nature FORMAL CORRECTION: I SHOWED YOU THEIR PICTURES, MAX of
the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins,
Dr. R. E. Franklin FORMAL CORRECTION: YOU PEEKED, "DARK LADY" and their
co-workers at King's College, London COMMENT: OUR TWO FOLLOWING PAPERS
ARE DATA, YOURS IS A LEAP, MAURY.

http://tinyurl.com/koh89f 

>>> viXra.org: An Alternative Archive Of e-Prints In Science And
Mathematics 

It has been founded by scientists who find they are unable to submit
their articles to arXiv.org because of Cornell University's policy of
endorsements and moderation designed to filter out e-prints that they
consider inappropriate. ViXra is an open repository for new scientific
articles. It does not endorse e-prints accepted on its website, neither
does it review them against criteria such as correctness or author's
credentials.

In part viXra.org is a parody of arXiv.org to highlight Cornell
University's unacceptable censorship policy. It is also an experiment to
see what kind of scientific work is being excluded by the arXiv. But
most of all it is a serious and permanent e-print archive for scientific
work. Unlike arXiv.org it is truly open to scientists from all walks of
life.

http://tinyurl.com/nhhv7u 

>>> Rejecta Mathematica: Caveat Emptor 

Rejecta Mathematica is a real open access online journal publishing only
papers that have been rejected from peer-reviewed journals in the
mathematical sciences.

http://tinyurl.com/cvapwo 

>>> Reinventing Academic Publishing | 1 > 2 > 3 / James Hendler 

Conclusion 

It's time for us as computer scientists to take a leading role in
creating innovation in this area. Some ideas are simple-for example,
providing overlay journals that link existing Web publications, thus
increasing the visibility (and therefore impact) of research that cuts
across fields. [snip] 

In my next column, I'll discuss current ideas regarding new technologies
for academic communication that we as a field might be able to help
bring into being, and some of the obstacles thereto. 

http://tinyurl.com/mz23fy 

>>> Reinventing Academic Publishing Online. Part I 

While current computing practice abounds with innovations like online
auctions, blogs, wikis, twitter, social networks and online social
games, few if any genuinely new theories have taken root in the
corresponding "top" academic journals. Those creating computing progress
increasingly see these journals as unreadable, out-dated and irrelevant.
Yet as technology practice creates, technology theory is if anything
becoming even more conforming and less relevant. 

We attribute this to the erroneous assumption that research rigor is
excellence, a myth contradicted by the scientific method itself. Excess
rigor supports the demands of appointment, grant and promotion
committees, but is drying up the wells of academic inspiration. 

Part I of this paper chronicles the inevitable limits of what can only
be called a feudal academic knowledge exchange system, with trends like
exclusivity, slowness, narrowness, conservatism, self-involvement and
inaccessibility. 

http://tinyurl.com/mq9r9x 

EnJOY!

Happy Sunday/Monday/Tuesday !

/Gerry 

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor

Science and Technology Librarian

Iowa State University Library

Ames IA 50011

 gerrymck at iastate.edu    

There Are No Answers, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed /

Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace