Scholarship in the Digital Age

Eric T. Meyer with Ralph SchroederOxford Internet Institute

Undergraduate Lecture SeriesMichaelmas Term 2010

Scholarship in the Digital Age

Flavours of Internet Research Research about the Internet as

social phenomenon

Research using the Internet as an information resource

The Internet as research tool and research method

The Internet as underlying infrastructure enabling advances in research across domains and disciplines

Source: Meyer, E.T., Schroeder, R. (2009). Untangling the Web of e-Research: Towards a Sociology of Online Knowledge. Journal of Informetrics 3(3):246-260

e-Research is defined as:

research using

digital tools and data

for the distributed and collaborative

production of knowledge

Source: CERN, CERN-EX-0712023, http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1203203

Online Historical Population Reports (OHPR/Histpop)

Reconfiguring Access

Source: Dutton (2010). Reconfiguring Access in Research: Information.Expertise, and Experience. In Dutton & Jeffreys (eds) World Wide Research:Reshaping the Sciences and Humanities. The MIT Press.

Source: S. Wuchty et al., (2007). The Increasing Dominance of Teams in Production of Knowledge. Science 316, 1036 -1039.

The Growth of Teams


Source: Schroeder, R., Meyer, E.T. (2009). Gauging the Impact of e-Research in the Social Sciences. Paper presented at the 104th American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 8-11, San Francisco, California.

Source: Meyer, E.T., Park, H-W., Schroeder, R. (2009). Mapping Global e-Research: Scientometrics and Webometrics. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on e-Social Science, June 24-26, Cologne, Germany.

Vis

ibili

ty

Source: Meyer, E.T., Park, H-W., Schroeder, R. (2009). Mapping Global e-Research: Scientometrics and Webometrics. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on e-Social Science, June 24-26, Cologne, Germany.

Why is science and research growing more collaborative?

Is technology driving it?

Or are there big scientific questions that cannot be answered otherwise?

SPLASH: Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpbacks

Meyer, E.T. (2009). Moving from small science to big science: Social and organizational impediments to large scale data sharing. In Jankowski, N. (Ed.), E-Research: Transformation in Scholarly Practice (Routledge Advances in Research Methods series). New York: Routledge.

Photo-identification

Humpback whales

20


Dolphins

Dolphins

22


Humpback whales

23

Matching techniques on screen

24

Matching techniques on paper

GAIN:

Genetic Association

Information Network

Ca. 2006-2007

34

46

58

51

39

57

Data reqs

Data needed to answer key questions in psychiatric genetics case study

Years Type of study Samples DNA Sequencing Scope of collaboration

1985-1997 Family association / linkage

300 Hundreds of loci / candidate genes

4 sites in USA

1997-2007 Family association / linkage

1,500 10,000 SNPs 13 sites in USA

2007-2009 Genome-wide association

5,000 1,200,000 SNPs Multiple multi-institution

collaborations in USA2010-? Whole genome 30,000 Millions of SNPs World-wide

collaborationFuture Whole genome

sequencing? Entire genome

sequenceWorld-wide

collaboration

Annotation Size

(no. of words)

Entries (topical

+ alphabetical+ page-by-page) Contributors

Book Form Annotation: Weisenburger’s

Gravity’s Rainbow162000 904 1 (22)

Wiki: Against the Day 455057

120 + 1358 + 4067

235

Comparison of book and wiki annotation efforts

Source: Schroeder, R., & Besten, M. D. (2008). Literary Sleuths Online: e-Research collaboration on the Pynchon Wiki. Information, Communication & Society, 11(2), 167 - 187.

Weisenburger vs. the Wiki on Pynchon

Source: Meyer, E.T., Schroeder, R. (2009). Untangling the Web of e-Research: Towards a Sociology of Online Knowledge. Journal of Informetrics 3(3):246-260.





Citation Habits

HistPop

BOPCRIS

BL News

BL Sounds

Med Back-files

9%

36%

53%

38%

43%

55%

36%

38%

50%

48%

36%

21%

6%

13%

10%

0%

7%

2%

0%

0%

Original version Original + URL Online version Other

0%10%20%30%40%50%

46%

29%

35%

20%

43%

Have you ever published a piece based on your work in this collection?

If so, how did you cite the collection?

The context of data

Source: Meyer & Schroeder (2009). The World Wide Web of Research and Access to Knowledge. Journal of Knowledge Management Research and Practice 7 (3):218-233.

42

Social InformaticsSI (and Kling) Big Ideas:1. Computerization Movements2. Social Actors (vs. users)

3. Socio-Technical Interaction Networks (STINs) - building on SCOT and ANT regarding

technology in use

4. Others

43

The STIN strategy“Several fundamental assumptions underlie the application of the STIN methodology, and drive the methods used to construct STINs. These assumptions include: [1] the social and the technological are not meaningfully

separable…, [2] Theories of social behavior…should influence technical

design choices…, [3] system participants are embedded in multiple,

overlapping, and non-technologically mediated social relationships, and therefore may have multiple, often conflicting, commitments…, and

[4] sustainability and routine operations are critical. “Quote from: Kling, R., McKim, G., & King, A. (2003). A Bit More to IT: Scholarly

Communication Forums as Socio-Technical Interaction Networks. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54(1), 46-67.

44

Steps in the STIN strategy

For more information see Meyer, E. T. (2006). Socio-technical Interaction Networks: A discussion of the strengths, weaknesses and future of Kling’s STIN model. In J. Berleur, M.I. Numinen, & J. Impagliazzo (Eds.), IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 223, Social Informatics: An Information Society for All? In Remembrance of Rob Kling (pp. 37-48). Boston: Springer. [ Also available to subscribers at SpringerLink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-37876-3_3 ]

The OeSS Project 2005-2011

http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/oess/

Oxford e-Social Science Project

OxfordInternetInstitute

Oxforde-Research

Centre

Institute for Science, Innovation

and Society at

Saïd Business School

OeSS

Researc

her

Dis

cip

lin

es

Visualization Source: Boyack, Klavens & Borner (2005) Mapping the Backbone of Science. Scientometrics 64(3): 351-374.

Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

Eric T. [email protected]

http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/meyer

Ralph [email protected]

http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/schroeder

Oxford e-Social Science Project

With funding from:

Education

Scholarship in the Digital Age