Forum Activity for @chief-admin

Re-inventing the Research Cooperative

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[quote="Michele lesure"]

Thank you for your efforts - I am very interested in this project and have a library background.

[/quote]

Thanks very much. It would be nice for our network to have some discussion about the role of libraries in the present digital age. I grew up with books, at home and academically, so still like to have physical volumes to browse and read. And I also like being able to find them through digital media.... so many old texts have been scanned and have rich information.

Re-inventing the Research Cooperative

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Since 2016, our network has been located in the Jamroom content management system.

This is very different from the Ning system that was our home for many years previously. Jamroom is also much more flexible and open for development and improvement.

I am not a computer coding person, so cannot use our new system to full advantage.

This is a project that really needs volunteers to provide technical help.

If our project succeeds, at least a little, then there may be ways to generate income to make the project financially self-sustaining, and able to pay for technical helpers who are skilled and engaged with the work.

I keep on hoping for this. That is one New Year's wish among many.

updated by @chief-admin: 21/06/17 01:16:09PM

Ph.D. thesis evaluators

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Dear Dr Sugumar,

I have posted a note about your request to our chemistry focus group here:

http://researchcooperative.org/group/chemicalworld

You are welcome to reply to my post there in order to add further information, or to comment on what I wrote.

Thanks very much for using our forums.

Peter (Admin.).

Is there a civil war between scholars?

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Do the editors know the owners of the journals they edit?!

Some commercial publishers exploit the goodwill of editors for the private benefit of the company owners. Few publishers are big enough to provide their own in house editors.

It is not clear that the civil war is between authors and editors. The editors are often authors too.

Perhaps what has happened is a breakdown of the civil (academic) society, where journals were owned and produced by the academic workers themselves.

The globalization and corporatization of academic production seems to follow the same pattern as the global food industry. To reclaim food sovereignty, we need to get back to work on our own farms, and grow our own food.

To reclaim academic sovereignty, we have to get back to work with our own small publishers, and grow our own journals. They can all be indexed and made accessible using open access software systems.

It is not that global systems are all bad, but losing all local production is definitely bad. The job of the modern world is to find a balance that is sustainable and spreads benefits to as many people as possible.

Dear Davide,

This conference in New Zealand might be of interest to you. I have no personal contact with people in this field, sorry.

Best regards, Peter

26th International Applied Geochemistry Symposium 2013

Incorporating the 35th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

18-21 November 2013, Rotorua New Zealand.

http://www.gns.cri.nz/iags/

Trying to get my dissertation published

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Dear Dr Sack,

I have cross-posted your project in our focus group for 'Teacher training" . There are not many members there, but maybe someone can help, in some way.

Thanks for using our forums!

Best regards, Peter (Admin., Kyoto)

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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Dear Martin,

Here are some further thoughts for you...

The key requirement for any good publication is the effort and skill of the people who do the writing, editing, illustration, indexing, review, and layout. This requires people hunting and coordination, and that historically has been the main service provided by good publishers.

There are already generic collaboration tools available online (even for Google Docs) for example, but I haven't seen anything dedicated to scientific publishing, which has rather more diverse and complex requirements than business or fiction writing. So that is one way your effort can distinguish itself from others.

The other way would be distinct if it can integrate with a range of team building services, of which the Research Cooperative is but one example. I am familiar with O-Desk, which allows anyone to set up a project desk and then look for people with the necessary skills, and manage payments, while taking a percentage from all transactions.

If your system has a login requirement, then can social-login be established to let people log-in with their log-in from the Research Cooperative, or Facebook, O-desk, etc etc.?

Integration might also take the form of simply providing information about the pros and cons of different team building systems, with links added.

Cheers, Peter

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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Dear Martin,

Thanks very much... I started browsing and like many of the points you are making. I need to give some serious thought to it all, but am hard pressed with writing tasks of my own this month...

More later (sooner rather than too late I hope).

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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Dear Martin,

A further thought: if you would like to write a more complete note/article about your publishing system and project, then this could be published here as a 'Short Communication' - see:

http://researchcooperative.org/group/short-communications-of-the-research-cooperative

Copyright for other uses (e.g. on your own website) would be yours.

Or you could simply post it as a blogpost from your own profile page.

Best regards, Peter

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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Dear Martin,

I would really welcome a doc about your project. When you are happy with it, I could also send it out through the network in various simple ways, in order to encourage feedback.

The 'new' dynamic that I have been hoping for here at the Research Cooperative is really an old dynamic I had the privilege of enjoying (in the 1980s in Australia) as a PhD research student:

... in an a research department where staff and students had equal-sized offices, where publishing was a constant activity, with support of an in house illustrator and photographer, where students were expected to initiate and be single authors of their own papers, but who could count on the support and interest of senior staff who had no need and no desire to be coauthors for work that was primarily the work of the student.

Where technical and academic staff and students were all treated as equal humans.

That's the kind of space I have been hoping to create here - not a system that is focused on academic status climbing, or that seeks to exploit the natural fears and uncertainties that many have about academic status.

Publishers and employers alike have been using so-called academic impact factors as sticks to beat young researchers with -- a lazy alternative to actually talking, reading, and making informed assessments of the value or quality or potential of research and of people doing research.

Thanks, P.