User:Daniel Mietchen/Talks/COASP 2010/Overview

Properties of wikis that are of interest for scholarly publishing

• Open Access by default (non-open licenses are possible)
  • Fine-grained configurability of user rights, thereby allowing for any peer review model (and any business model).
• In comparison to paper-based scholarly communication:
  • Web-native: Basically anything on the web can be embedded or otherwise directly linked to
  • Contextual links are the central pillar
  • Version control built in, thus allowing stable releases and updatability
• Several popular wikis are open source and have been tested under high load
• The more open research becomes, the more diverse will the acts of science publishing become. Wikis exist for all aspects of the research cycle (except for funding decisions, for cultural reasons)

Possible functionalities of a scholarly wiki.                                 Page Article Discourse Open questions   History Metadata   Community Events Jobs   Related articles                                 Function Encyclopaedic knowledge pertaining to the topic of the article; stable versions (like print) but updatable according to rules set by the relevant community; threat to publishers? Discussion of new research results and how they fit into existing knowledge; threat to publishers? Gaps identified in encyclopaedic knowledge, including current and planned research projects; opportunities for funders; potential business model.   The edit history of this article, plus links to archives. The metadata for this article, readable for both humans and machines, plus two-way citation information.   Links to communities (scientific or otherwise) related to the topic. Events related to the topic; a unique way to advertise events in context — potential business model. Jobs related to the topic; a unique way to place job ads in context — potential business model.   Topics related to that of the article.     Role traditionally played by (highlighted if directly relevant to OA publishing) Encyclopaedias, textbooks and review articles Research articles, perspectives, correspondence, pre-publication peer review, posters Grant applicants   Science historians Librarians, citation indices   Scholarly societies, interest groups, Citizen science groups Local conferences, workshops, courses Scholarly magazines   Keywords