1. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 1 Scholarpedia: an Open Access peer reviewed encyclopedia Bertil F. Dorch, editor The Royal Library / Copenhagen University Library Honorary associate professor The Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen University

2. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 2 Content Introduction: Wiki culture Scholarpedia philosophy A working example of Open Access The Encyclopedia of Astrophysics

3. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 3 Introduction: Wiki culture We are living in a Web X culture (X ~ 2.something) Web > 1 technology available to scholars (and nerds) Success criteria: Easy, democratic, everything is online It’s a wiki world Wikipedia 2001 (Jimmy Wales & Larry Sanger) Rival Encyclopedia Britannica (e.g. Nature, 2005) Wikimedia Foundation 2003 (Florida → CA 2008) MediaWiki software 2003 Open Source, easy to use & setup, uses PHP + MySQL Wikipedia siblings: Controlled wiki encyclopedias Negative spin on Wikipedia: Abuse, reliability issues New wiki initiatives: Citizendium, Enzclopedia etc.

4. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 4 www.scholarpedia.org

5. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 5 Scholarpedia philosophy Scholarpedia idea Build on successes of Wikipedia and correct problems Not only controlled content, but high quality content  high profile authors = leading experts or original authors Implementing academic standards: Traditional & new Peer review (by actual peers, rather than e.g. editors) Invitations and elections of authors earning scholar indices Short review articles (with outbound references) that are curated Wiki environment Easy for curators, editors, reviewers (referees) Semi-automatic Handling of invitations of authors and referees Handling of the review process (editing, discussing, approving) Nobel Laureates and Fields Medalists Leon Cooper contributes BCM Rule Gerald Edelman contributes Neural Darwinism Riccardo Giacconi contributes Cosmic X-ray Sources * Donald A. Glaser contributes Bubble Chamber which he invented Clive Granger wrote the history part and reviewed Granger Causality Paul C. Lauterbur contributed MRI John C. Mather contributes Cosmic Background Explorer * Rita Levi-Montalcini contributes Nerve Growth Factor Erwin Neher contributes Patch Clamp Myron S. Scholes contributes Black-Scholes Formula Charles Townes contributed Laser which he invented John Milnor contributed Attractor (Fields Medalist) Steve Smale contributed Smale Horseshoe (Fields Medalist) Terence Tao contributed Szemerédi's Theorem (Fields Medalist) + and 45 articles with titles = the name of their author

6. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 6 Scholarpedia numbers Number of registered people: > 3,000 Number of curators: almost 1,000 Number of reserved articles: > 1,000 Number of finished articles: ~ 400 Number of editors: 23 Number of Nobel Laureate authors: 11 Number of Encyclopedias: 4 Number of Editors-in-chief: 1 Number of USD on budget: 0 … but sponsors are wanted

7. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 7 Scholarpedia, physically Editor-in-chief and founder: Dr. Eugene M. Izhikevich Curriculum Vitae 1967 Born in Moscow, Russia 1992 M.S. in Applied Mathematics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1996 Ph.D. in Mathematics, Michigan State University, Michigan 1996-2000 postdoc and then visiting professor, Department of Mathematics, Center for Systems Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 2000-2005 Associate Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology, The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, California 2005-present Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology, The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, California

8. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 8 Encyclopedia_of_Astrophysics

9. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 9 The Scholarpedia Encyclopedia of Astrophysics Working example of Open Access ! History Scholarpedia began in early 2006 (Encyclopedia of Comp. Neurosci.) Yours truely wrote article for The Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems → Category on Fluid Dynamics branched into Computational Astrophysics (Category Editor, early 2007) → Encyclopedia of Computational Astrophysics? Na, better go directly to Astrophysics (+ more an more sub-categories and sub editors) Overlap with Dynamical Systems (sharing articles) Examples of how it works, looks and feels… Viewing an article (as an unregistered user) Registrering as a user (to contribute, not to read) From the author’s point of view Editor’s point of view

10. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 10 Example of a finished articles (short reviews)

11. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 11 Example of a finished articles (short reviews)

12. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 12 Example: Registering as a user

13. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 13 Example of editing an articles

14. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 14 Example: Managing referees and inviting authors

15. Copenhagen University Library Seminar on Open Access 2007 15 The End Scholarpedia articles Dorch (2007) Magnetohydrodynamics. Scholarpedia, p.10322 Izhikevich (2006) Main Page. Scholarpedia, p.1286  OA peer reviewed media is easy to work with The software is for free and the editorial “staff” is for free → Nothing comes entirely for free, though  Looking for sponsors… For increased computer capacity