I wanted to share this announcement from our friends at the SURF Foundation in the Netherlands with the CNI community. They have been doing some very helpful work trying to understand what will happen to scholarly publications as we leave behind the limitations of the printed page, and as we need to present data intensive science.
Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI
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Enhanced publication: from experiment to practice
Utrecht, 20 October 2011 – Researchers at a number of universities and research institutions gained experience in 2011 with enhancing publications during six projects financed by SURFfoundation. The emphasis in previous projects was mainly on developing the technical facilities for creating enhanced publications. This year, it was the turn of the researchers themselves to enhance their publications and to present them in context. Enhanced publication is a new type of scientific/scholarly publication whereby researchers make publications available on the Internet in combination with related research data.
Vision for the future
In the future, it will become increasingly rare for research results to be presented merely one-dimensionally. It is precisely the significant relationship between the publication itself, the underlying research data, references, illustrations, etc. that creates cross-fertilisation between research, researchers, and research fields. This increases the likelihood of research breakthroughs and perhaps also of new ways for researchers to collaborate.
Removing the barrier
The many technical possibilities offered by the semantic web, xml and rdf (rich data format) mean that it is often no easy matter for researchers to publish their research as an enhanced version. That barrier can be removed if they receive proper support and cooperation from ICT departments and support staff. Researchers who have overcome that barrier are enthusiastic about the potential of enhanced publication.
Researchers with little ICT know-how also see the advantages even if they do not understand the ‘inner workings’of an enhanced publication. A pdf that has been enhanced with relevant supplementary or supporting information is a more attractive way of presenting research results. Enhanced publication also makes it easier for interested colleagues to discover the research work concerned.
What researchers say
Prof. Nick Jankowski of the eHumanities Group at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is enthusiastic about the possibilities opened up by enhanced publications: “They provide the opportunity for new insights, new knowledge, and for sharing the knowledge with other scholars and a wider public.” In a short video – Enhanced Publications: from experiment to practice – Prof. Jankowski and five colleagues talk about the value of enhancement and their experience during the project.
Five disciplines
Enhanced publication has proved valuable in a number of disciplines and can be applied in various different ways, making it very versatile.
· Economics: Open Data and Publications
· Linguistics: Lenguas de Bolivia and Enhanced NIAS Publications
· Musicology: The Other Josquin
· Communication sciences: Enhancing Scholarly Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences
· Geosciences: VPcross.
Lessons learned
Enhanced publication has enormous potential. However, the experience gained during the project shows that there is still a lot to be learned about how to enhance publications and how to make use of the semantic web. The various tools that have been developed for this new way of publishing research results are not yet “ready for immediate use” by researchers. Enhancement still involves collaboration between researchers and ICT staff. The lessons learned will be used for further development.
More information
· Enhanced Publications
About the SURFshare programme
The aim of SURFshare is to provide better access to high-quality scientific and scholarly knowledge using the very latest ICT technology. This is possible because ICT not only speeds up standard communication processes but changes the nature of the knowledge chain itself. The growing number of facilities for knowledge sharing and dissemination mean that traditional publications, tools (models, algorithms, visualisations) and research data are increasingly interwoven.
SURFfoundation’s intention in the SURFshare programme is to create a common infrastructure that will facilitate access to research information and make it possible for researchers to share scientific and scholarly information.
Kind regards,
Annemiek van der Kuil
Annemiek van der Kuil | community manager SURFshare | ICT & Research | SURFfoundation | Graadt van Roggenweg 340 | P.O.Box 2290 | 3500 GG Utrecht | T + 31 30 234 66 42 | E vanderkuil@surf.nl W www.surffoundation.nl/SURFshare