Renaissance Computing Institute Scholarly Communication in a Digital World: Some Thoughts Dan Reed

Renaissance Computing Institute The Power of Communication “He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of printing.” Thomas Carlyle Sartor Resartus, 1833

Renaissance Computing Institute Scholarship: Definition and Evaluation Intellectual reward –discovery and personal curiosity Shaping discourse and communities –posing and answering critical questions Transformative impact –evolution and revolution Communication rationales –education and training –record and interchange of knowledge –reproducibility and validation –transfer to practice –and yes, fame, fortune and ego

Renaissance Computing Institute Diverse Sociologies Multiple cultures –arts, humanities and social sciences –sciences and engineering Many scholarly communication approaches –books, monographs, journals, conferences access time, priority and intellectual property –multiple media and expression text, audio, video, artifacts, performances, … –primary and secondary source materials –professional societies and private publishers –books, monographs and university presses

Renaissance Computing Institute Some Community Comments Tenure and promotion –diverse cultures and evaluation criteria from performance and practice to publication –scholarly output types and modes mechanisms, timelines, types and processes –universal models are problematic evolution and revolution Institutional repositories –multiple visions and roles digital archives and/or alternative publication venues –research and education access modes and goals, not just articles or books longitudinal access and lifelong learning –what and how much to save declining cost of storage and simplicity of deposit

Renaissance Computing Institute Some Community Comments Publishing –commercial publishers monopolistic control in certain areas –venue requirements accessibility and credibility –unbundling the components and access rights peer review, publication and archiving Copyright and IP –restrictive access rights teaching and scholarship, including inaccessibility –conflicting goals Intellectual advantage, economic gain and academic sharing –faculty obligations to push “fair use” or, who gets the top bunk when we get caught?

Renaissance Computing Institute Generational Change Behavioral expectations –retrieval and correlation mechanisms Information access sociology –timelines for change vary widely Democratization of access –long-tailed distributions Interdisciplinary activities –research and education Changing opportunities –one terabyte, ~$1000 today the text in one million books entire U.S. Library of Congress is ~ten terabytes of text –one petabyte 1-2 petabytes equals all academic research library holdings soon routinely generated annually by many scientific instruments UNC Health Sciences

Renaissance Computing Institute UNC-CH Undergraduate Printing Trends

Renaissance Computing Institute Moving Forward Personal incentives and institutional pain –the wisdom of Pogo (Walt Kelly) “We have met the enemy, and they are us.” We create, review and edit … –we bear responsibility and have opportunity –but, there is no single solution to these issues Think globally, act locally –individual actions affect global outcomes –help change academic culture educate colleagues locally and globally We have begun a long term process … –ongoing institutional discussion is critical