Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Monday, April 28, 2008

Profile of Science 2.0

M. Mitchell Waldrop, Science 2.0 -- Is Open Access Science the Future?, Scientific American, April 2008. An in-depth profile. Key concepts:
  • Science 2.0 generally refers to new practices of scientists who post raw experimental results, nascent theories, claims of discovery and draft papers on the Web for others to see and comment on.
  • Proponents say these "open access" practices make scientific progress more collaborative and therefore more productive.
  • Critics say scientists who put preliminary findings online risk having others copy or exploit the work to gain credit or even patents.
  • Despite pros and cons, Science 2.0 sites are beginning to proliferate; one notable example is the OpenWetWare project started by biological engi­neers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See also the pre-print of this article which Peter blogged in January.