Publishing, Open Access & Social Networks
Scholarly Publishing
"The creation, dissemination, and application of new knowledge are fundamental to the development of an informed citizenry and a healthy global economy. Institutions of higher education exist to fulfill these functions. From the lab to the classroom to industry to the public, the advancement of knowledge through research and teaching is an invaluable contribution made by higher education to the public good. Scholarly publishing is the process through which newly discovered knowledge is refined, certified, distributed to, and preserved for researchers, professors, students, and the public." (ARL - Association of Research Libraries)
Open Access
"An Open Access Publication[1] is one that meets the following two conditions:
1. The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and
distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship[2], as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
2. A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long term archiving (for the biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository)." (Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing)
[1] Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers.
[2] Community standards, rather than copyright law, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now.
Scientific Social Networks
Scientific social network sites are designed to bring together researchers by listing published collaborations and funded research projects. The sites listed below are all free although registration is required.
- BioMedExperts - A new online community that connects biomedical researchers to each other through the display and analysis of the networks of co-authors with whom each investigator works to publish scientific papers. The comprehensive system of pre-populated expert profiles, coupled with the ability to analyze all associated professional connections within the co-author network, allows scientists and researchers across organizations the ability to share data and collaborate in ways never before considered.
- ERA-Link - A networking tool for European researchers in the U.S. that provides information about research in Europe, European research policy, opportunities for research funding, for international collaboration and for trans-national mobility.
- Researcher ID - A global, multi-disciplinary scholarly research community in which each research listed is assigned a unique identifier, to aid in solving the common problem of author misidentification. Search the registry to find citations, collaborators, and more. Registration in ISI's Web of Knowledge is required as a first step. After receiving a Web of Knowledge id, you then register with Researcher ID. Both registrations are free since Wake Forest is an ISI subscriber.