Transparency of Scientific Information

by Mike Jennings in Technology | Comments [3] Tags: doe-r&d electronic-documents transparency web-2.0

Mike Jennings As a coordinator of Web 2 media and product technology at OSTI, I've often wondered whether the stakeholders involved in the development of DOE scientific reports could benefit more from web innovations such as websites, blog sites, subscriptions, and "live" content. The commercial Web and its second generation of Web 2 innovations have certainly been relevant factors in the transparency equation for other types of information on the Web outside of science. Specifically, I suggest that Web innovations would complement electronic document innovations for the transparency of DOE scientific information reports.

The majority of new DOE scientific information is preserved in commercial electronic document formats like the Adobe PDF format which require special software to view and navigate the information. PDF document technology is less useful for certain features. This is especially true for web browsers and mobile devices.

By promoting a mix of conventional and modern Web innovations in DOE's research documentation life-cycle, the following benefits could be realized for DOE scientific and technical information:

Conventional websites use hyper-linking to connect a thought written in one document to another thought "anchored" in another document. Perhaps hyper-linking is a better way for one DOE researcher to cite the work of another.

Blog sites automatically provide chronological, topical, and subject-relational approaches for studying information whereas electronic documents usually present only one sequential read of the information.

Subscription to website content is more convenient. The RSS and email protocols enable websites and blogs to deliver frequent, bite-size information to mobile devices. Mobile devices are less able to manage the software needed to access the information stored inside electronic documents.

Electronic documents are mostly static. But websites use both conventional and modern innovations to embed "live" content on Web pages from realtime sources like open science archives, dictionary content, news content, notification services, and public opinion.

In support of transparency, the OSTI Web 2.0 Team is already finding ideas and opinions on the web about DOE R&D and hyperlinking back to relevant DOE information pages. We are also enabling subscriptions to new information about DOE R&D. We are also embedding live access to DOE findings and information about DOE research through the use of widget technologies.

We would be very excited to elaborate on how these approaches could make the scientific information inside electronic documents more transparent.

Mike Jennings

Web 2 Research and Innovation

Comments:

OSTI has mostly viewed itself as the recipient and transmitter of scientific documents but there is no reason it could not pioneer a new, dynamic form of document, along the lines Mike Jennings describes. Ironically, both the Internet and the Web were developed for science but science still uses the "clay tablet" document format. OSTI could change that. For example, it would be very useful if I could take a document on Information Bridge and create a link to a specific paragraph in it. As it is now I can only link to the entire document and specify the page and paragraph number for people to laboriously look up, which few will do. Having these documents in XML instead of, or in addition to, PDF format would be a big start. Citations between documents play a central role in science. The citations in a document explain how the present result is built upon the previous results. They define the web of belief of a scientific community. It would be very useful if citations could become more precise, by using new Web technology, as Mike Jennings proposes. Citing a paragraph is much more precise than citing an entire document.

Posted by David Wojick on July 04, 2009 at 07:03 AM EDT #

Thanks David, I did not know exactly how important citations were. OSTI does have a "Reference Linking" process for hyper-linking citations in electronic documents. I think the process creates links out to other web pages but falls short of enabling other webpages to link into OSTI's electronic documents.

Commercial software is available for creating anchors, or destinations inside electronic documents. Perhaps there is potential to enhance OSTI's Reference Linking process by providing an additional service for patrons who request help with citations.

Even so, my thoughts are that web site innovation, when applied in the beginning of the DOE STI life cycle, could achieve more benefits.

For example, consider how the OSTIblog and most other weblog systems work. Web users can create their own anchors inside the contents of weblogs by simply commenting - as you have already done. Notice the hash symbol to the right of where your own name is listed beside your paragraph on this very article. If you click the hash symbol, the web address of your paragraph on the OSTIblog is revealed in the address bar of the web browser. This is the address of your comment:

http://www.osti.gov/ostiblog/home/entry/transparency_of_scientific_information#comment-1246705390000

Furthermore, if you wanted to cite your anchored comment on the OSTIblog in your own document, you could do so by cutting and pasting the address into your document. Likewise, if you wanted to cite your own published information you could have also included a hyper-link with your comment here on the OSTIblog.

The OSTIblog, like most other blogs, is not scientific information. But there are some leading researchers who are putting scientific information in blogs. Sol Lederman at the Federated Search Blog provides great coverage of a Michael Neilson piece about scientific blogging and journalism. Here is the web link:

http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/07/01/science-source-selection.

Now that I know how important citations are to science, and that some leading researchers are using web and weblog innovation, I'm even more interested to know how can DOE adopt more web innovation in the DOE scientific information life cycle?

------- Follow this link to find a before and after example of a "Reference Linked" electronic document at OSTI. Or, you can contact Debbie Nuchols, nucholsd@osti.gov.

http://www.osti.gov/Reference_Linking

Posted by Mike Jennings on July 08, 2009 at 06:57 PM EDT #

It has great benefits to be able to list some if not most of the DOE's scientific information through this different web innovations.

Posted by HSA on November 04, 2009 at 09:36 PM EST #