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Category: open data

On Big Data, Little Data, No Data by Christine Borgman

On Big Data, Little Data, No Data by Christine Borgman

Borgman presents a thorough overview of research data across the disciplines. She argues that data are not very well understood but are also critical for the sustenance and sustainability of scholarship. Borgman compares how data are developed, manipulated, and stored in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and repeatedly suggests that better and more comprehensive research data management practices and knowledge infrastructures are needed. She writes, The value proposition for access to data is the value proposition for knowledge infrastructures….

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On “Digital Scholarship Considered: How New Technologies Could Transform Academic Work” by Nick Pearce, Martin Weller, Eileen Scalon, and Melanie Ashleigh

On “Digital Scholarship Considered: How New Technologies Could Transform Academic Work” by Nick Pearce, Martin Weller, Eileen Scalon, and Melanie Ashleigh

In the article “Digital Scholarship Considered: How New Technologies Could Transform Academic Work” Nick Pearce, Martin Weller, Eileen Scanlon, and Melanie Ashleigh contribute to the conversation around integrating digital technology and higher education. The authors take it as a given that new technology is capable of affecting how academics work, but they are steadfast in their belief that this is not an inevitable outcome of our increasingly networked world. Although I suspect this is a bit of a strawman argument,…

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On “Comprehensive Brief to Open Access to Publications and Research Data for the Federal Granting Agencies,” by Kathleen Shearer

On “Comprehensive Brief to Open Access to Publications and Research Data for the Federal Granting Agencies,” by Kathleen Shearer

In this 2011 document, “Comprehensive Brief to Open Access to Publications and Research Data for the Federal Granting Agencies,” Kathleen Shearer reviews the research dissemination landscape in Canada, especially within the context of open access. She divides her report into two sections: publications and data. Although the general premise behind open access and open data is the same (that is, free and universal access to research materials), the implementation considerations are actually rather different. There remain challenges to Canadian researchers’…

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On the Government of Canada’s “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications”

On the Government of Canada’s “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications”

Governments around the world are developing policies to encourage or ensure open access to the research they fund. These policies vary in scope and implementability, but all of them take the line that publically funded research should be publically available. The “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications” lays out the Government of Canada’s approach and attitude toward research sharing and dissemination, funneled through the Tri-Agency. The goal of this document is to convince researchers to make their output openly available,…

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On “Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada”

On “Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada”

“Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada” is a consultation document that was compiled by the Government of Canada (namely the Tri-Council and CFI, in collaboration with Genome Canada) and released in October 2013. The primary aim of this document is to argue that funding policies for digital scholarship and infrastructure in Canada need to be coordinated. The document’s compilers contend that Canada does not have sufficient infrastructure to manage the increasing load…

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On “Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research,” by Gargouri et al.

On “Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research,” by Gargouri et al.

In “Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research” (2010), Yassine Gargouri, Chawki Hajjem, Vincente Larivière, Yves Gringas, Les Carr, Tim Brody, and Stevan Harnad compare the relative impact of open access and non-open access articles that are archived in a repository because of mandate or due to self-selection. They confront the previously asserted conclusion that the so-called OA Advantage (i.e., the increased citation levels of OA articles) is a self-selection bias rather than a causal…

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