72,438 research outputs found
Are e-readers suitable tools for scholarly work?
This paper aims to offer insights into the usability, acceptance and
limitations of e-readers with regard to the specific requirements of scholarly
text work. To fit into the academic workflow non-linear reading, bookmarking,
commenting, extracting text or the integration of non-textual elements must be
supported. A group of social science students were questioned about their
experiences with electronic publications for study purposes. This same group
executed several text-related tasks with the digitized material presented to
them in two different file formats on four different e-readers. Their
performances were subsequently evaluated by means of frequency analyses in
detail. Findings - e-Publications have made advances in the academic world;
however e-readers do not yet fit seamlessly into the established chain of
scholarly text-processing focusing on how readers use material during and after
reading. Our tests revealed major deficiencies in these techniques. With a
small number of participants (n=26) qualitative insights can be obtained, not
representative results. Further testing with participants from various
disciplines and of varying academic status is required to arrive at more
broadly applicable results. Practical implications - Our test results help to
optimize file conversion routines for scholarly texts. We evaluated our data on
the basis of descriptive statistics and abstained from any statistical
significance test. The usability test of e-readers in a scientific context
aligns with both studies on the prevalence of e-books in the sciences and
technical test reports of portable reading devices. Still, it takes a
distinctive angle in focusing on the characteristics and procedures of textual
work in the social sciences and measures the usability of e-readers and
file-features against these standards.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Online Information
Revie
Wikis in scholarly publishing
Scientific research is a process concerned with the creation, collective accumulation, contextualization, updating and maintenance of knowledge. Wikis provide an environment that allows to collectively accumulate, contextualize, update and maintain knowledge in a coherent and transparent fashion. Here, we examine the potential of wikis as platforms for scholarly publishing. In the hope to stimulate further discussion, the article itself was drafted on "Species-ID":http://species-id.net/w/index.php?title=Wikis_in_scholarly_publishing&oldid=3815 - a wiki that hosts a prototype for wiki-based scholarly publishing - where it can be updated, expanded or otherwise improved
Astrophysicists and physicists as creators of ArXiv-based commenting resources for their research communities. An initial survey
This paper conveys the outcomes of what results to be the first, though
initial, overview of commenting platforms and related 2.0 resources born within
and for the astrophysical community (from 2004 to 2016). Experiences were
added, mainly in the physics domain, for a total of 22 major items, including
four epijournals, and four supplementary resources, thus casting some light
onto an unexpected richness and consonance of endeavours. These experiences
rest almost entirely on the contents of the database ArXiv, which adds to its
merits that of potentially setting the grounds for web 2.0 resources, and
research behaviours, to be explored.
Most of the experiences retrieved are UK and US based, but the resulting
picture is international, as various European countries, China and Australia
have been actively involved.
Final remarks about creation patterns and outcome of these resources are
outlined. The results integrate the previous studies according to which the web
2.0 is presently of limited use for communication in astrophysics and vouch for
a role of researchers in the shaping of their own professional communication
tools that is greater than expected. Collaterally, some aspects of ArXiv s
recent pathway towards partial inclusion of web 2.0 features are touched upon.
Further investigation is hoped for.Comment: Journal article 16 page
Durable Digital Objects Rather Than Digital Preservation
Long-term digital preservation is not the best available objective. Instead, what information producers and consumers almost surely want is a universe of durable digital objects—documents and programs that will be as accessible and useful a century from now as they are today.
Given the will, we could implement and deploy a practical and pleasing durability infrastructure within two years. Tools for daily work can embed packaging for durability without much burdening their users. Moving responsibility for durability from archival employees to information producers would also avoid burdening repositories with keeping up with Internet scale. An engineering prescription is available.
Research libraries’ and archives’ slow advance towards practical preservation of digital content is remarkable to outsiders. Why does their progress seem stalled? Ineffective collaboration across disciplinary boundaries has surely been a major impediment. We speculate about cultural reasons for this situation and warn about possible marginalization of research librarianship as a profession.
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