New kinds of scholarly works

I’ve become so convinced of the responsibility we have to society that as the rector I intend obliging our researchers to circulate their articles publicly, for example no more than six months after publication.

New kinds of scholarly works

New forms of scholarship are emerging from the possibilities of the digital networked environment.
In this part of the website a few examples are given to illustrate the growing amount of digital possibilities for scholars.

E-journals

E-journals reach beyond the simple translation of a print journal to electronic form. Apart from text-only, multimedia can be used. Even links to datasets, models and software can be included. Publications can become 'enhanced publications'.

Veterinary Sciences Tomorrow (VetScite) is a free multimedia current awareness journal for veterinary and related research scientists.
Vectors is a multimedia, open-access journal focused on how technology shapes social relations. It comprises moving and still images; voice, music, and sound; computational and interactive structures; social software; and more.
Neerlandistiek.nl is an open access journal on the Dutch language and literature making use of the digital possibilities such as animations.
Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries (JALC) is a new Open Access e-journal that offers the opportunity to the archaeological community to present its research to a wider, international audience.

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Electronic books

Electronic books can be more than just digital conversions of printed volumes. Like with e-journals multimedia can be included.

Gutenberg-e, a collaboration of the American Historical Association and Columbia University Press, offers digital monographs that can either be printed out and read in the traditional way or, in the electronic versions, offer elements that cannot be conveyed in print: extensive documentation, hyperlinks to supplementary literature, images, music, video, and links to related web
A good example is the book written by prof. Dr. Frits van Oostrom ‘Stemmen op schrift; Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse literatuur van het begin tot 1300’. The accompanying website offers elements that cannot be conveyed in print: hyperlinks to supplementary literature, images, audio, reviews, and links to related web sites.
The OAPEN study of the prospects for scholarly publishing in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) points to the e-monograph, published in open access, as a promising publishing model for the future. This model offers a satisfactory response to the crisis facing the printed monograph while connecting to the general trend in academia towards electronic research and study resources. Moreover, it fully embraces the advantages in terms of access and usability of e-monographs provided by academic libraries. The full report can be found at www.oapen.org.

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Enhanced publications

Similar to e-journals and e-books the Internet provides the possibility to enhance publications with the underlying data, models, and algorithms. Adding the underlying data and models to an article makes it easier to verify, reproduce, and re-use the results of research. An article of this kind is referred to as an “enhanced publication”.

Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries (JALC) has articles that include the extensive digital documentation that is typical of archaeology, for example photographs and drawings of excavations, geographical information, tables, and diagrams. It allows researchers to visualize the data within their publications as high-resolution images, GIS viewers, or dynamic data tables.

Virtual communities

Virtual communities of scholars with shared interests are emerging on a regular basis, made practical by an e-mail list or collaboration platforms:

The nanoHUB is a rich, Web-based resource for research, education and collaboration in nanotechnology, offering simulation tools, workspaces for collaboration, podcasts, an assortment of teaching materials, and much more.
In A Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations in the period 1500-2000, The International Institute of Social History is making an inventory of all types of labour relations worldwide. This is varying from slavery and share cropping, to free wage labour and self-employment from 1500 up until today. The collaboration tool is used to gather statistical data.
Tales of the Revolt Collaboratory is the virtual research environment of the Tales of the Revolt research program at Leiden University.The collaboratory facilitates collaboration in the field of data management and knowledge sharing. The collaboratory also promotes interaction between the research program and the public. The collaboratory enhances the existing Revolt of the Netherlands website with new sources, thus allowing research results to be made available immediately for the general public.

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Thematic research collections

Thematic research collections are a new category of scholarly work emerging in the humanities, but also in disciplines such as agriculture:

The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative brings together mapping technology with digital data on historical and archaeological resources, enabling users to create digital maps that display a wide range of cultural material and use place and time as a common element.
The Digital Seed Atlas of the Netherlands is part of The Digital Plant Atlas, an international project that makes a unique contribution to the identification of seeds, fruits, roots, leaves, flowers, etc. The plant parts are illustrated with high-quality colour photographs and accompanied by a scale and their scientific name. The local names in various languages are included in an index.

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Weblogs and wikis

Weblogs and wikis are becoming commonplace on the web, and many explore scholarly topics:

Pharyngula, the scientific weblog of the American biologist Paul Myers of the University of Minnesota, has about 29.000 visitors per day.
The RealClimate blog provides commentary by climate scientists aimed at the public and journalists to provide a quick response to developing stories and context that is sometimes missing in mainstream coverage.
Law professors Lawrence Lessig and Michael Carroll explore intellectual property issues with their blogs
The philosopher Peter Suber tracks the development of open access to scholarship with his Open Access News blog.
Der Dieren Palleys is a wiki by students of the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen in which they are collaborating to transform the mediaeval book Der Dieren Palleys to a popular-scientific edition.
OpenWetWare is a wiki to share information, know-how, and wisdom among researchers and groups who are working in biology and biological engineering.

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Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias are hardly new, but today scholars are developing and maintaining a new generation of dynamic, web-based resources that are readily updated and openly available. Wikipedia – “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” - is a popular success, but there also examples that apply rigorous peer review:

Each entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before being made public.
Eric Weisstein’s World of Science contains encyclopedias of astronomy, scientific biography, chemistry, and physics.

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