Scientific researchers are one of the latest groups to experiment with blogs, wikis, and social networks. Researchers are using these tools to promote communication, to make new scientific discoveries, and to discover previous research. This program will look at web 2.0 tools aimed at the scientific community.

1. SCIENCE, WEB 2.0 AND NEW
MODES OF SCHOLARLY
COMMUNICATION
Bonnie J. M. Swoger
SUNY Geneseo
May 28-30, 2008

2. TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
SCIENTISTS
 Journal Articles
 Books
 Conference
Presentations
 Technical Reports
 Patents
 Hallways
 Email
 Conference Hallways
 Phone calls
 “You should talk to…”
Formal Informal

3. NEW WEB 2.0 CONCEPTS
 Users add value to content
 Two-way communication
 Commenting, tagging, reviewing
 Connecting with like minded folks
 Social networking, blogs, forums
 Open information
 Open access, open API’s, free services
 Syndication and RSS

4. NATURE NETWORK
 http://network.nature.com
 Sign up, create a profile, add friends and
contacts, interests, publications
 Read blogs, join groups, participate in discussions
 Network with colleagues before and after
conferences, learn about upcoming events
 From Nature Publishing Group
Civilian counterparts: Facebook, My Space

5. SCIENCE BLOGGING
 Communication with other scientists and with
the general public
 Discussion about policy, humor, academe and
commentary on peer review research
 See:
 Postgenomic.com - Summaries
 ScienceBlogs.com
 ResearchBlogging.org
Especially: Blogging about peer reviewed research

6. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING FOR SCHOLARS
 Connotea – developed by Nature Publishing
Group
 2collab – developed by Elsevier. Integrated into
database products ScienceDirect and Scopus
 CiteULike – independently developed
 Bookmark web links and journal articles
 Assign useful tags, enter citation information
 Explore papers and sites other researchers have
bookmarked
Civilian counterpart: del.icio.us

7. OPEN NOTEBOOK SCIENCE
 Online lab notebooks with multiple contributors
 Blogs, Wikis
 Multiple labs working on the same problem
 Sharing ideas, protocols
 Being open about failed experiments and ideas.
See “Useful Chemistry”, “OpenWetWare”

8. PLOS ONE
 Review of the “importance” of a paper occurs
post-publication by other researchers
 Annotations and commenting features
 From PLoS – Public Library of Science
 Downloads/Views help determine which papers
are featured on the home page.
Open access online journal with a different model of
publication

9. THE FUTURE OF SCIENTIFIC SCHOLARSHIP
 Greater transparency at every step of the
research and publication process
 Transformation of information seeking methods
 Increased open access to published products
 Emphasis on authority will be retained, but how
authority is gauged may shift