Welcome

Thank you all for joining this group.

Messages posted here will be automatically broadcast to all members of the group, so it is a good idea to be careful with the choice of title and spelling etc in the message.

Today, I was testing the character number limit for this message area and it seems that at least 10,000 characters can be used in visual mode, without any use of the extra formatting options in the menu. This may be adequate for most purposes.

We can edit our own messages by using the Edit link under the Options tab at upper right of your message, when you view the whole message.

What can we write about here?

The Research Cooperative as a whole is focused on all matters related to the communication of research, academic, and scientific knowledge, in all media. This includes academic, extension, technical, educational, and grey literature. Although the discussions are open, and may include very specific research topics, please keep our general orientation and purpose in mind.

In this way, our network will remain distinct from most other research related networks, and will serve as a useful focus point for discussions related to the process of communicating research, academic, and scientific knowledge.

Although our network is global in scope, very many of our members and new visitors come from the USA, which represents perhaps the world's largest English-speaking research community.

The USA is also a nation of immigrants, so members of the present focus group may also be able to help expand awareness of the Research Cooperative in many regions of the world. If our diverse members in the USA can help in inviting new members from across the USA and the world, this will be much appreciated.

Please enjoy this forum and help us to develop our network at the same time.

Sincerely, Dr Peter Matthews (Admin., Kyoto, Japan).