The
scholarly communication is only a small component of a larger Research
Lifecycle. The researchers engaged in advancement of knowledge through
participating in collaborative scientific research projects, more specifically
plan their research in consultation with their research partners, funders and
institutional research team. Initially, a group of researchers nurtures
research ideas, which are fine-tuned by their research partners and other team
members. Then they write a well-structured research proposal and submit to a
research funding agency. The funder selects a research proposal for funding,
subject to fulfilment of the funder’s broader criteria and scope. Funder may
insist modifying certain aspects of a research proposal to suit their funding
objectives, obligations and budgetary limitations. After acceptance of a
research proposal, then the research process starts in virtual research
environments – in active participation with the collaborative institutions and
other research partners. Each partner institution may initiate a specific and
well-defined component of the research work. Coordination of all research
components is done by the principal investigator in active participation with
all project leaders of different components. A typical research process
involves certain activities for research data generation, namely, Simulate,
Experiment and Observe. In social science research, field work is usually
undertaken for research data generation through observation or simulation. Then
the research process intrinsically involves in management of generated data,
data analysis and data sharing. Here, the principal investigator and team
leaders are involved in report writing, and communicating findings of the
collaborative research work. This research team may choose any of the scholarly
communication channels – such as journals, conference proceedings and research
monographs – to disseminate results of research to a larger audience. The
research team is also responsible to produce high quality report for communicating
to the funding agency and other stakeholders responsible for initiation of any
follow-up research activities. The generated or collected research data also
requires preserving for future reuse or reutilization in follow-up research
projects. Then the Research Lifecycle reiterates for solving some of the
related research problems and advancing frontiers of knowledge. Figure 1.2
shows a Research Lifecycle diagram, universally applicable to scientific
research paradigms.
Figure 1.2 Shows a Research Lifecycle diagram
Courtesy
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/campaigns/res3/jischelp.aspx
1.3.1. Different Channels of Scholarly Communications
There are many avenues of scholarly communication available to researchers. The most popular channel of scholarly communication is scholarly periodicals. This periodical publication channel is well respected within scientific communities for their high level of academic impact, credentials, quality assurance, accessibility, and outreach potentials. Some of the prominent are as follows; The scientific conferences are considered as a good avenue for reaching out to expert communities in an interactive mode to get feedbacks on presented research papers. Conference papers may be published before or after the conference. Nowadays, many conferences are co-publishing presented conference papers in online proceedings, available with commercial publishers’ knowledge gateways. Some conference organizers are even
collaborating with academic journals to publish special issues, selecting certain number of high quality papers presented in the respective conference. In social sciences and humanities disciplines, a research monograph is considered as an effective publishing channel for a research project. Books or monographs are considered as non-ephemeral items having long-standing impact within a community of researchers. Research monograph is also a good option for publishing results of research. In some books, collections of chapters written by different authors are considered, where each chapter is a kind of research paper depicting certain amount of results of a research work.
Research reports and project reports are formal mode of research communication to record and disseminate research results to funding agencies and other stakeholders involved in the research process. In some countries, public-funded project reports are made available in public domain through online open access. Theses and dissertations are formal mode of academic research communication to record and disseminate research results of doctoral and master’s level research studies, undertaken by enrolled students in higher educational institutions and universities. In some countries, public-funded doctoral dissertations are made available through institutional or national repositories of
electronic theses and dissertations (ETD). In India Shodhganga project of the INFLIBNET Centre is one such national system. Working papers are a type of scholarly papers to communicate findings of research in progress. Working papers help the researchers in getting qualitative and timely feedbacks for making certain changes in research design or
analysis of generated
data. The patents are vehicle of protection of intellectual property rights
emanated from scientific projects or scientific discoveries. A new product or
process or technique derived from a scientific research work, which has certain
applications for the betterment of human life, is patentable and inventors can
claim it as their intellectual property by registering it with patenting
authorities by following certain legal procedures.All
these channels of scholarly communication are popularly known as primary
sources or original sources or primary literature (Figure 1.3 gives an
indicative list of primary sources of information). Primary sources are indexed
in global or national indexing and abstracting (A&I) databases, which are
also popularly known as alerting service. Science Citation Index (SCI),
produced by Thomson Reuters, is an example of secondary source of information connecting
to recently published primary literature. Figure 1.4 gives a list of types of
papers published in academic journals.
Most
predominant types are research papers, review papers, research communications
or short communications. Some academic journals include feature articles based
on theme of a special issue. Other regular types of articles are book reviews,
opinion or commentary papers, perspectives or insight papers, news or views,
and conference reports. In many journals, editorial is regularly published to
express editorial points of view on certain aspects related to journal specific
issues or research environment or some current issues in general.
References
and Further Reading
Abel,
R., Newlin, L. W., Strauch, K. P., & Strauch, B. (2002). Scholarly
publishing: Books, journals, publishers, and libraries in the twentieth
century. New York: Wiley.
Andersen,
D. L. (2004). Digital scholarship in the tenure, promotion, and review process.
Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe.
Borgman,
C. L. (1990). Scholarly communication and bibliometrics. Newbury Park: Sage
Publications.
Braxton,
J. M. (1999). Perspectives on scholarly misconduct in the sciences. Columbus:
Ohio State University Press.
Chan,
Leslie. (n.d.). Exciting Potential of Scholarly Electronic Journals. CAUT.
Davis-Kahl,
S., & In Hensley, M. K. (2013). Common ground at the nexus of information
literacy and scholarly communication.
Joshi,
Meenakshi. (2000). Scholarly Communication and the Internet.
(Http://hdl.handle.net/1849/38.) drtc.
Shorley,
D., & In Jubb, M. (2013). The future of scholarly communication.
Sompel,
Herbert van de, Payette, Sandy, Erickson, John, Lagoze, Carl, & Warner,
Simeon. (n.d.). Rethinking scholarly communication: building the system that
scholars deserve.
The Tutorial is customized from UNESCO’s Open
Access (OA) Curriculum modules prepared for academicians and library
professionals for promotion and propagation of open access movement