User:Daniel Mietchen/Talks/COASP 2010/Wikis as platforms for OA publishing

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Session start · Talk start · Quotes · Background · Wikis as science communication platforms ·
Wikis as platforms for Open Access publishing · Prototypes · Editorial policies · Guided tour ·
Obstacles · Alternatives · Outlook · Summary · Slides · Video · Q & A · Demo

The idea is not new: Somewhere at the fringe of science, someone will start using wiki publishing for science publishing. — John Schmidt (2006)

Because for practical purposes we can define publishing to include, along with page design and typesetting, the functions of editing, manufacturing, advertising, selling, warehousing, shipping, billing, collection, and other aspects of "valued added" and "Who will keep the gates? How? To what end? — Jack G. Goellner (1988; 2010 wiki version)

Apparently, people are realizing that a much more open post-publication peer review process, where anyone can take part, is a lot more effective —  Mike Masnick (August 2010)

Wikis as platforms for OA 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 (along with time stamps, naturally), thus allowing stable releases and updatability, while establishing priority
• Several popular wikis are open source and have been tested under high load

• built-in article-level metrics at bottom of page and via What links here (which could also be used for other pages, e.g. those hosting images, references, or datasets), author-level metrics via Special:Contributions, further aggregation possible (e.g. at the level of research projects, labs or thematic workgroups)

• 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, though the reasons are not of a technical nature)