UK researchers' behaviour and the drive for open knowledge
1. UK researchers’ behaviours and the drive for open knowledge Branwen Hide April 24 th , 2010 Open Knowledge Conference 2010
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9. Branwen Hide Liaison and Partnership Officer Research Information Network [email_address] www.rin.ac.uk
Hinweis der Redaktion
-personal background The RIN aims to enhance and broaden understanding of how researchers in the UK create and use information resources and services of all kinds and try and bridge the gap between researchers and policy makers at all levels
Increasing support for the principles of open knowledge Academia we are seeing an expansion of open access publishing and data sharing initiatives Research funders and institutions developing policies, mandates, and infrastructure Expansion of web 2.0 resources for the research community Unclear as to the extend to which researchers are engaging with the principles Overview of some work we have done over the past couple of years looking at researchers publication practises (both formal and informal), and their use of web 2.0 resources and data sharing habits.
This is some work that we have done which shows that actually not everyone is using these tool Early adopters/frequent users tend to be between 35-44 years and generally more established in their career early career researchers are more concerned about being ‘scoped’ by placing material in the public domain even when working in environments which support open practises. However, younger researchers - in particular PhD students have a higher usage of social-networking sites as compared to more established researchers Because older more established researchers already have established networks Or younger researchers use them more in their private life and find it easier to see how these sites could benefit their professional life
The extent to which standards are required for interoperability and the availability of these standards – do they exist already or do they need to be established?
Mixing open and ‘closed’ forms of working Distinct patterns of adoption
Our own work has highlighted that many researchers do not have the necessary skills to use or feel confidant to use advance searching options – as a result they may miss key information sources and have a large number of pages to scroll through Also in a world where many of our information related sources are no longer just trusted peer –reviewed literature, researchers are being asked to make judgment on quality in a way they have never had to before How do you determine the quality of a blog or a wiki? Or info on twitter? Would you trust it as research material? Would it depend why you were using it…