eScience Workshop 2011 – Transforming Scholarly Communication

icon_education_grayView videos of the presentations from the Microsoft Research eScience Workshop, Transforming Scholarly Communication. Micharvard_university_135x165rosoft Research and Harvard University sponsored this invitation-only event from October 23 to 25, 2011, at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The workshop—co-sponsored in close collaboration with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation—convened experts in scholarly communication from academia, the publishing industry, scholarly and learned societies, and funding

The worksnewenglandlabhop identified and promoted the adoption of new platforms and approaches to facilitate research in the eSciences. In response to growing interest in new forms of communication, the workshop helped participants transition to these new paradigms effectively and sustainably.

 

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Workshop Tharvard_logo_100x99opics

  • Research Management: project collaboration software, “smart” laboratory software, provenance systems
  • Communication (New Media): production, distribution, archiving (for example, video, 3-D modeling, and databases)
  • Communication (Literature-Based): publications based on text and still images (creation, reviewing, dissemination, archiving, reproducibility)
  • Communication (Peer Review): standard publication-based systems, alternative rating systems, etc.
  • Resource and Information Management: seamless technologies for literature and data (literature and data search engines; cloud-based, group sharing, adjustable permissions, integration with search
  • Credit and Citation Models: how can we best enable cooperation and adoption?

Workshop Organizing Committee

  • Alyssa Goodman—professor of Astronomy and research associate, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University
  • Alberto Pepe—Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University
  • Mary Lee Kennedy—senior associate provost, Harvard Library, Harvard University
  • Malgorzata (Gosia) Stergios—knowledge and information programs strategist, Harvard University
  • Lee Dirks—director, Microsoft Research Connections
  • Alex Wade—director, Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research
  • Joshua M. Greenberg—director, Digital Information Technology and the Dissemination of Knowledge Program, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  • Chris Mentzel—program officer, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Primary support fotony_heyr the workshop was prosloane_foundationvided by Microsoft Research Connections, headed by Corporate Vice President Tony Hey, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.moore_foundation

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Time 

Event
17:00–19:00 Opening Reception – Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, on the Harvard University Campus

  • Welcome—Alyssa Goodman, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University and Research Associate, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
  • Opening Remarks—Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research
  • Recent Efforts in Advancing Scholarly Communication—Phil Bourne, Professor of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego
  • Closing Comments—Alyssa Goodman

Monday, October 24, 2011

Time 

Event
8:30–9:00 Light breakfast – Microsoft Research New England, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142
9:00–9:20 Welcome and Introductions | video

  • Mary Lee Kennedy, Senior Associate Provost for the Library, Harvard University
  • Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections
9:20–10:50 Invited Demonstrations Session I (10 minutes per demonstrator)

Moderator: Mary Lee Kennedy, Senior Associate Provost for the Library, Harvard University

Platforms: Project collaboration software, “smart” laboratory software, and provenance systems

Co-Facilitators: Jill Mesirov, Associate Director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Dave DeRoure, Professor of e-Research, Oxford e-Research Centre

  • David de Roure, Professor of e-Research, Oxford e-Research Centre (Demo of myExperiment) | video
  • Tim Clark, Director of Bioinformatics, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Harvard Medical School (Demo of SWAN) | video
  • Rafael Sidi, Vice President, Product Management, Elsevier (Demo of SciVerse) | video

Media: Production, distribution, archiving (for example, video, 3-D modeling, and databases)

Facilitator: Curtis Wong, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research

  • Phil Bourne, Professor of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego (Demos of SciVee and BioLit) | video
  • Moshe Pritsker, CEO, Editor-in-Chief, Co-founder, Journal of Visualized Experiments (Demo of JoVE) | video
  • Chris Lintott, Director of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium (Demo of Zooniverse) | video
  • Taliesin Beynon, Research Programmer Wolfram|Alpha (Demo of the Computable Document Format—CDF) | video

Literature: Publications based on text and still images (creation, reviewing, dissemination, archiving, and reproducibility)

Facilitator: Phil Campbell, Editor–in-Chief, Nature
10:50–11:20 Break
11:20–12:50 Invited Demonstrations Session II (10 minutes per demonstrator)

Moderator: Alberto Pepe, Postdoctoral Associate, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Review: Standard publication-based systems, alternative rating systems, etc.

Facilitator: Amy Brand, Assistant Provost for Faculty Appointments & Special Advisor, Office for Scholarly Communication, Harvard University

Resources: Seamless technologies for literature and data (literature/data search engines; cloud-based, group sharing, adjustable permissions, and integration with search)

Facilitator: Phil Bourne, Professor of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego

  • Alberto Accomazzi, Project Manager, NASA Astrophysics Data System, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (Demo of ADS and ADS Labs) | video
  • Mercé Crosas, Director of Product Development, IQSS, Harvard University (Demo of Dataverse) | video
  • Ashfaq Munshi, Founder and CEO, Terabitz (Demo of Terabitz) | video

Recognition: How can we best enable cooperation and adoption?

Facilitator: Cameron Neylon, Senior Scientist, Science and Technology Facilities Council

  • Jevin West, University of Washington (Demo of Eigenfactor) | video
  • Jessica Mezei, Mendeley Community Liaison (Demo of Mendeley) | video
  • Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections (Demo of Microsoft Academic Search) | video
12:50–13:50 Lunch
13:50–15:10 Breakout Sessions I

For each of the six Demonstration Session topics listed in orange above, a focus group of approximately 10 people will work together to ultimately create a short (approximately two-page) “statement” addressing (at least) the issues listed below. Facilitators from the demo sessions will moderate each discussion and may designate a chief scribe for the tumblr pages created to host each group’s deliberations and statements. Hyperlinks with the statements, pointing to more details, are allowed and encouraged.

Issues to be addressed in the “statements” include:

  • Essential elements of presently successful systems
  • Failure modes of experiments that looked good but didn’t succeed
  • Most promising technologies for the future
  • Key unsolved problems, which might be addressed in the coming five years
  • Inter-dependencies with other topics
15:10–15:30 Break
15:30–17:00 Breakout Sessions II: Continued group discussion
17:00 Adjourn and transfer to Hyatt Cambridge
18:00–21:00 Dinner and (optional) team discussion/editing sessions (Empress Ballroom, Hyatt Cambridge); Wi-Fi will be available

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Time 

Event
8:30–9:00 Light breakfast – Microsoft Research New England
9:00–9:30 Day 1 Recap and Discussion | video

Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections, and Alyssa Goodman, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University and Research Associate, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
9:30–11:00 Breakout Sessions III: Finalize reports (via tumblr site)
11:00–13:00 Synthesis of Ideas and Recommendations

(working lunch): Distribution and review of group reports and recommendations, including cross-group consultation
13:00–15:00 Group Reporting and Summary | video

Moderators: Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research Connections, and Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections, with Marguey Avery, Editor, MIT Press

Representatives from each group will contribute to a shared summary, including highlights and challenges covered in the meeting, and will conclude with a call to action for the group, based on their findings
15:00 Adjourn

Post Meeting

It is anticipated that the reports and other output created by the groups will be made available to the broader community via this event website and the tumblr site. In addition, meeting organizers and focus group leaders will create a summary of the meeting outcomes that can be distributed broadly. This overall summary will present a roadmap for action with a four- to five-year time horizon specifying recommendations for the whole scholarly communications ecosystem. Microsoft Research and Harvard will publicize the meeting results.

View videos of the presentations from the October 23–25, 2011, workshop. See the agenda for information about the presentations.