I always thought that the most important thing in any scientific paper was supposed to be the data and how they were obtained. Everything else is window-dressing, because it's filtered through the lens of subjectivity. The background, the discussion - these are somebody's opinions. If the experiments have been done carefully and analyzed thoroughly, the data are the only facts in the paper, the only thing that can be trusted. They're what I want to read and understand. The people who obtained the data have the right to tell me what they think it all means, and I often find their opinions useful, but I also have the right to decide for myself. Yes, I can still do that if I dig out the supplementary material, but I shouldn't have to dig. If our priorities are straight, the methods and the data should be the centerpiece. And in the modern era, there's no reason not to put them there.
Thanks to Alf Eaton for pointing to Petsko's piece, for this excerpt, and for setting up an example (based on OJS) of what Petsko might have had in mind. Excerpt from Eaton's description:
[In this example,] as much of the data as possible is embedded directly in the article, so that when the page is saved, the media should be saved with it. The 'supplementary data' will be linked to directly from the page as well, ideally with a useful rel attribute so that it can be automatically fetched along with the rest of the page. This should make things much easier, rather than having to go to a separate page and click links to see each microscopy movie, or open and scroll around tiny pop-up windows for every table or figure.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/02/2006 08:19:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
