The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is a new peer-reviewed, open-access journal specializing in videos of biological experiments. In addition to browsing the table of contents, you can search for videos by tags --though I saw no way for users to add their own tags. The videos are subject to peer review. (Thanks to Jean-Claude Bradley.) From the site:
This publication aims to solve some of the most difficult problems in the contemporary life science research: [1] low transparency and reproducibility of biological experiments, [2] time-consuming learning of experimental techniques.
As every practicing biology researcher knows, it takes days, weeks or sometimes months and years to learn and apply new experimental techniques. It is especially difficult to reproduce newly published studies describing the most advanced state-of-the-art techniques....Video-based visualization of biological techniques and procedures provide an effective solution to the problem described....
Each video-article will include step-by-step instructions on an experiment, a demonstration of equipment and reagents, and a short discussion by experts describing possible technical problems and modifications. Every scientist planning on a biological experiment will be able to access the database, find videos relevant to their work, and use them as protocols. High effectiveness of visualized instructions, as compared to currently used written protocols, will decrease failure rates for biological experiments, and, thus, facilitate significant savings in time and cost. It will also increase reproducibility of published experiments, one of the main problems in the current life science research.
There is no fee for authors to publish their video articles. Also, video-articles published in JoVE will be freely available to the scientific community.
PS: This is a fascinating step forward in taking advantage of the internet as a medium for scientific communication. This journal is limited to biology, but I imagine there is a very similar need in many other fields. I also imagine there's a need for video journals that go beyond experimental protocols to observations of unusual phenomena and observations made with rare and expensive instruments.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/21/2006 11:00:00 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.
