HighWire focused on what researchers were trying to accomplish, and how the technologies might fit in. We first focused on workflow: how did researchers do the work of reading the literature and documenting their results?

1. Research-Communication
Studies
John Sack
May 31, 2012

3. Studies
● 2002 Web-log and Researcher Interviews
● ‘e-journal’ days
● Pre Google indexing of the literature
● Pre social media
● 2010/2011 Researcher Interviews
● Has the workflow changed?
● 45 Stanford researchers
● 2011/2012 Interviews
● How best to communicate research?
● 16 international biomed researchers & clinicians
● 2012 Research-Communication Colloquium
● What should or will change in research communication?
● 19 students, editors, publishers, librarians, techs
HighWire | Stanford University

4. The Researcher Workflow, 2002

5. Discovery Tools: Retrieval
● PubMed
● Web of Knowledge/Science
● Google Scholar
● Wikipedia
● Google
“I use Google to vacuum
around the edges of the carpet.”
HighWire | Stanford University

6. Discovery Tools: Retrieval
● PubMed Central “has the look and feel of a
government website”
● Amazon is a discovery tool for books
● Google Books “is really revolutionary”
● Books are used for “unfamiliar topics”
● Google…
“…is like crushing rock. You lose the
delight of discovery in grinding through
stuff to find a few good articles.”
HighWire | Stanford University

7. Keeping Current: Macro View
● “Reading journals”, but…
● Missing: thematic connections
● RSS feeds, but …
“…if the abstract is interesting,
I’ll email the link to myself…
and then I’ll never look at it.”
HighWire | Stanford University

10. Keeping Current: Macro View
“When I read a journal I get in the
mail, it is leisure time. …
…when I’m reading on my
computer it is work.”
HighWire | Stanford University

11. “I don’t read journals,
I search databases.”
HighWire | Stanford University

12. “I don’t read journals,
I read articles.”
HighWire | Stanford University

13. “I don’t read books,
I work with them.”
HighWire | Stanford University

14. “The new process is efficient,
but I have
lost discovery and serendipity.
I can’t browse online.
Because of keyword search,
I see only
what I’m working on right now.”
HighWire | Stanford University

15. On Podcasts…
“I have been interviewed
for many podcasts, but
have never clicked on one.”
HighWire | Stanford University

16. On Podcasts…
“Audio abstracts??
I read faster than I listen”
“I use my ears to listen to music,
and my eyes to watch old
Hollywood movies.
Do you imagine I would watch
Robert Weinberg telling me about
HighWire
metastases? I’d go crazy.”
| Stanford University

17. Would you like videos?
“Embedded Video? Gimicky.
People do it because they can.”
“A good movie
doesn’t save bad research.”
HighWire | Stanford University

18. On Social Media…
“As an older researcher,
I don’t use social media.”
“People read blogs as
entertainment,
not to advance scholarship.”
HighWire | Stanford University

19. On Interactivity…
“Having an easy way
for the reader to
contact the author
scares me a little.”
HighWire | Stanford University

20. “Finding content is easy.
Reading takes
a lot of time.”
HighWire | Stanford University

21. What the Users Tell Us
● The workflow is the same
● Researchers…
● Are conservative towards change
● Are mobile already, with laptops
● Read journals, but differently than before
● Search Google, Google Scholar, PubMed and
ISI, even Amazon, not publisher sites
● Browse HTML; save, read, annotate PDFs
HighWire | Stanford University

22. What the Users Tell Us: Scanning, Reading
● What types of services will enhance article
skimming and reading?
● Well-structured abstracts
● Author/expert commentary
● Play-in-place, less ‘pogo-sticking’
● Chapter/article outline and navigation should
be visible instantly (above the fold)
● Integration with workflow tools
HighWire | Stanford University

23. Article of the Future: What’s of Interest
● Visual abstracts
● Integrated supplemental information
● Figure browser
HighWire | Stanford University

24. The Researcher Workflow, 2002

25. The Researcher Workflow, 2011

26. 2012 Colloquium on Research Communication
● Premise: Basic format and structure of the
research journal has changed little since 1665
● Recent changes to information landscape
● Last 15 years: journals have transformed from
print to online: potential is there for change
● Last 6 years: consumer explosion
in interactive and social media,
why not in scholarly books/journals?
● Now: What changes in approach are required
to better facilitate research communication?
● Who: 19 students, editors, publishers, librarians,
technologists and futurists
HighWire | Stanford University

27. Topics
● Filtering: 3 levels of reading:
detailed, peripheral, of interest
● Desire for more access to more data,
coupled with better ability to filter,
annotate, interact
● Every paper a meeting; articles as
conversations
● Paper as “just one node” in the research
ecosystem, a chain/network of communication
● Products that solve workflow problems
HighWire | Stanford University

28. The Researcher Workflow, 2002

29. The Researcher Workflow, 2012

30. Workflow 2012: Expand the Conversation
Workflow
Classroom System
Pre- Content Post-Publication
Publication (Article, Chapter,
Data Set, etc.)
Society
Meeting
Journal Club
Advertisement
s,
Jobs

31. John Sack