[Fis] Scientific Communication and Publishing

Mon Oct 3 19:46:25 CEST 2016

Dear Mark, and all,

Great videos. Sorry to be slow on this important theme, I have just got 
back from some intensive travel in China.

Mark asks at the end of the first video "why (in an uncertain world) do 
we continue to put so much emphasis on the academic journal".

In answering, I would not disagree with any of Mark's comments, but I 
would stress the policy and political entanglement of technology. In the 
past there was no alternative to print media, and so no need to enforce 
the hegemony of the journal in the ways that Mark has outlined. The 
publishers and universities who were passive recipients of the tribute 
of the academic community as if by right (where else would you go), are 
now forced to take an active role in order to maintain their preeminence 
in the new technological environment. They use their existing position 
to avert threats to their future control, through coordination  on 
policy, regulation and law (e.g. right of access to papers, brought into 
sharp focus by the tragic death of Aaron Swartz a couple of years ago).

In a separate dynamic, technology is being used to manage these changes, 
which are themselves given impetus by the alignment of technology with 
managerial methods (Key Performance Indicators, etc), and with the 
business models of financialisation, privatisation and precarious 
employment.

I don't think we will get to the bottom of these matters, still less 
change them, without engaging with the processes in a political way, 
however good our analysis of technology per se may be.

Now I'll go off to check out Sci-Hub, ... or maybe I'll wait until I 
leave the office and get home.

Dai

>
> ________________________________________
> From: Fis [fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es] on behalf of Loet Leydesdorff [loet at leydesdorff.net]
> Sent: 27 September 2016 08:27
> To: 'Moisés André Nisenbaum'; 'Mark Johnson'; 'fis'
> Subject: Re: [Fis] Scientific Communication and Publishing
>
> Dear Mark, Moises, and colleagues,
>
> I agree that this is a very beautiful piece of work. The video is impressive.
>
> My comment would focus on what it is that constructs reality "by language" (p. 2). I agree with the remark about the risk of a linguistic fallacy; but how is the domain of counterfactual expectations constructed? The answer in the paper tends towards a sociological explanation: "status" for which one competes in a new political economy. However, it seems to me that the selection mechanism has to be specified. Can this be external to the communication? How is the paradigmatic/epistemic closure and quality control brought about by the communication? How is a symbolic layer shaped and coded?
>
> One cannot reverse the reasoning: the editorial boards follow standards that they perceive as relevant and can reproduce. The standards are not a convention of the board since one would not easily agree. Reversing the reasoning would bring us back to interests and thus to a kind of neo-marxism a la the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). In actor-network theory (ANT) the emergence of standards happens historically/evolutionarily, but is not explained.
>
> I don't have answers on my side. But perhaps, the strength of anticipation and the role of models needs to be explored. Models can be entertained and enable us to reconstruct a knowledge-based reality.
>
> Best,
> Loet
>
>
> Loet Leydesdorff
> Professor, University of Amsterdam
> Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)
> loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/
> Associate Faculty, SPRU, University of Sussex;
> Guest Professor Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, ISTIC, Beijing;
> Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of London;
> http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fis [mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Moisés André Nisenbaum
> Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2016 1:45 AM
> To: Mark Johnson
> Cc: fis
> Subject: Re: [Fis] Scientific Communication and Publishing
>
> Dear Mark.
>
> Thank you for the excelent video and article. It is very important to discuss this and, if you agree, I will use your video with my students (can you send me the transcription?).
> No doubt we are in a changing world and we have to fight against abusive processes, like publication industry.
>
> In Rafael's article, the question “what is a scientific journal in the digital age?” I understand that we must think outside the box. I think it would be great if some group invent a kind of "Uber" of scientific production. Something that connect directly authors and readers at feasible rates.  arXiv does this connection in some way, but it is not universal. E-science is also a good initiative.
>
> Related to this discussion, UNESCO will do an event on Wednesday
> (sep/28th) at Museu do Amanhã (Rio de Janeiro) called International Day for Universal Access to Information (http://en.unesco.org/iduai2016).
>
> But the fact is: we are human and the worry about "reputation" is the real reason of today's organization of scientific communication (about this, this book chapter is very good: VAN RAAN, Anthony FJ. The interdisciplinary nature of science: theoretical framework and bibliometric-empirical approach. Practising interdisciplinarity, p.
> 66-78, 2000.)
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Moisés
>
>
>
> 2016-09-26 4:55 GMT-03:00 Mark Johnson <johnsonmwj1 at gmail.com>:
>> Dear FIS Colleagues,
>>
>> To kick-start the discussion on scientific publishing, I have prepared
>> a short (hopefully provocative) video. It can be found at:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bh3vqM98-U
>>
>> (if anyone's interested, the software I used for producing it is
>> called 'Videoscribe')
>>
>> I have also produced a paper which is attached.
>>
>> I hope you find these interesting and stimulating!
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Mark
>> --
>> Dr. Mark William Johnson
>> Institute of Learning and Teaching
>> Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
>> University of Liverpool
>>
>> Phone: 07786 064505
>> Email: johnsonmwj1 at gmail.com
>> Blog: http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Fis mailing list
>> Fis at listas.unizar.es
>> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
>>
>
>
> --
> Moisés André Nisenbaum
> Doutorando IBICT/UFRJ. Professor. Msc.
> Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro - IFRJ Campus Rio de Janeiro moises.nisenbaum at ifrj.edu.br
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fis mailing list
> Fis at listas.unizar.es
> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fis mailing list
> Fis at listas.unizar.es
> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis.
>

-- 
-----------------------------------------

Professor David (Dai) Griffiths
Professor of Education
School of Education and Psychology
The University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton, BL3 5AB

Office: T3 02
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/IEC

SKYPE: daigriffiths
UK Mobile: + 44 (0)7826917705
Spanish Mobile: + 34 687955912
(Please don't leave voicemail)
email:
    d.e.griffiths at bolton.ac.uk
    dai.griffiths.1 at gmail.com