On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, Jim Till wrote:
> What if there's no consensus about a definition of the research
> 'literature' in the future?
There is already some room for competition on-paper; there will be even
more room once everything's on-line and free:
"the unique power of Skywriting -- interactive publication -- could
continue exerting its equalizing effect, with the possibility of
rival peer hierarchies fighting it out in cyberspace)"
Harnad, S. (1995) Sorting the Esoterica from the Exoterica: There's
Plenty of Room in Cyberspace: Response to Fuller. Information
Society 11(4) 305-324. Also appeared in: Times Higher Education
Supplement. Multimedia. P. vi. June 9 1995.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/THES/harful1.html
> Various research 'literatures' might be defined, based mainly on which
> particular search engine one is using
I hardly think the decisive factor will be the engine. What will matter
will be whether it's up there at all. That's why it's so important to
get the current refereed literature all up there (and freely
accessible), in interoperable OAI-compliant Eprint Archives, fast!
> An example: when I tried out the Digital Integrity search engine demo...
> An article that matched a few of the key words was one authored by Julie
> M. Hurd of the University of Illinois at Chicago...
> When I did a search of JSTOR, I wasn't able to find anything by this
> author.
Perhaps it's not in a journal covered by JSTOR. Worse, others may
want to access it whose institutions cannot afford either JSTOR or the
journal its in. (See list of her ISI-indexed publications at the end of
this message. I leave it to you to check how many are accessible for
free online...)
> In the article, she compares some models of scientific communication,
> including more traditional ones (based on the refereed article and the
> peer-reviewed journal as the basic units of distribution), and less
> traditional ones (including one where the e-print is the basic unit of
> distribution, and one that uses data as the basic unit of distribution).
Compares, and finds what? There's a vast research literature there, and
a vast number of users. One comparison, on one sample, in one field,
cannot tell us much about anything...
> This is (IMHO) clearly a scholarly article. I don't know whether or not
> it's (subsequently?) been peer-reviewed, but I did find it interesting.
Nor can generalizations about "the literature as a whole" be made from
such individual experiences... To scale up, a quality-tagging system
has to work for all of the literature. Someone's "IMHO" doesn't; peer
review does.
> My point is simply that the model that provides the main focus for this
> Forum is one based on self-archived e-prints and peer-reviewed journals
> as the basic units of distribution. It represents one model for opening
> up access to (the traditional peer-reviewed) research 'literature'.
> But, of course, it's not the only model for an 'open literature' of the
> future.
It's not a model. It is simply taking the current reality, such as it
is, and for whatever it's worth -- a peer-reviewed literature -- and
trying to free access to it all online. That's not a model; it's a
modest goal whose benefits are self-evident, and the means of attaining
them equally evident, and already demonstrated.
As to what an "open literature" might be: I have no idea what that
might mean (though I could hazard a few guesses); I have no "model."
But I would hope that it includes, as a clearly tagged subset, the
entire current refereed literature. Liberating that subset is the
objective of this Forum.
> My own perspective? There isn't (and won't be) any 'scholarly consensus'
> about the exact boundaries of the research 'literature'.
I'll settle for the existing peer consensus on the existing refereed
literature, and once we have all of that up there, tagged and free,
I'll take potluck with the rest...
Here's the Hurd list from ISI:
1. Hurd, JM. Perspectives issue on ... The changing communication
system of science: Behavioral and organizational aspects -
Introduction and overview. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR
INFORMATION SCIENCE, 2000 DEC, V51 N14:1276-1278.
2. Hurd, JM. The transformation of scientific communication: A
model for 2020. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION
SCIENCE, 2000 DEC, V51 N14:1279-1283.
3. Weller, AC; Hurd, JM; Wiberley, SE. Publication patterns of US
academic librarians from 1993 to 1997. COLLEGE & RESEARCH
LIBRARIES, 1999 JUL, V60 N4:352-362.
4. Hurd, JM; Blecic, DD; Vishwanatham, R. Information use by
molecular biologists: Implications for library collections and
services. COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES, 1999 JAN, V60 N1:31-43.
5. Curtis, KL; Weller, AC; Hurd, JM. Information-seeking behavior
of health science faculty: the impact of new information
technologies. BULLETIN OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 1997
OCT, V85 N4:402-410.
6. HURD JM. ARL ACADEMIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LIBRARIES - REPORT
OF A SURVEY. COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES, 1996 MAR, V57 N2:144+.
7. CURTIS KL; WELLER AC; HURD JM. INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOR - A
SURVEY OF HEALTH SCIENCES FACULTY USE OF INDEXES AND DATABASES.
BULLETIN OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 1993 OCT, V81
N4:383-392.
8. HURD JM; WELLER AC; CURTIS KL. INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR OF
FACULTY - USE OF INDEXES AND ABSTRACTS BY SCIENTISTS AND
ENGINEERS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASIS ANNUAL MEETING, 1992,
V29:136-143.
9. HURD JM. INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN THE SCIENCES -
IMPLICATIONS FOR LIBRARY ORGANIZATION. COLLEGE & RESEARCH
LIBRARIES, 1992 JUL, V53 N4:283-297.
10. HURD JM. THE LIBRARIANS COOKBOOK - SELLEN,BC. LIBRARY
QUARTERLY, 1990 OCT, V60 N4:384-385.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stevan Harnad harnad_at_cogsci.soton.ac.uk
Professor of Cognitive Science harnad_at_princeton.edu
Department of Electronics and phone: +44 23-80 592-582
Computer Science fax: +44 23-80 592-865
University of Southampton
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/
Highfield, Southampton
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
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Received on Wed Jan 03 2001 - 19:17:43 GMT