As an academic librarian, I've been trying to get a handle on the emerging parameters of social scholarship. This is the practice of scholarship in which the use of social tools is an integral part of the research and publishing process. The process gains a number of characteristics, including openness, conversation, collaboration, access, sharing and transparent revision.
In this entry, I'm going to paint an idealized picture of this process, gathering together both observations and speculations. I'm not suggesting that any one individual would do all of these things. I'm just looking at the options - or better yet, the opportunities....
A social scholar contributes to the conversation about her research topic by discussing her findings and ruminations on her blog and by inviting comments....
During the source gathering phase of her research, a social scholar shares important citations by depositing and tagging them on academic-oriented bookmarking sites such as Connotea and CiteULike....
A social scholar deposits her works-in-progress in a pre-print repository in order to take advantage of useful comments from peers.
Post publication, a social scholar provides open access to her works by depositing them in a post-print repository, institutional repository, personal Web site, etc....
Whenever possible, a social scholar publishes in open access journals....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/23/2007 01:27:00 PM.
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.
