Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
specifi c tasks and questions may fi nd it diffi cult to thrive. For example, the
discussion forum ChemUnPub did answer one of our questions but did not
result in a long-term collaboration [99]. A question on the OrgList mailing list
was also helpful for a specifi c laboratory cleaning procedure [100].
25.3.7
Sharing Drafts of Papers and Proposals
In April 2007 drafts for a paper [101], a thesis [101], and a proposal [102]
related to UsefulChem were started on the wiki. Being quickly indexed on
major search engines, these documents represent a new way to share research
work as it is being organized and planned. This is especially the case for pro-
posals, which are rarely made public at any point. Nature Precedings, which
provides a platform with an easily citable format including an author list and
DOI [103], was used to publish another proposal for the project in January
2008 [104]. In June 2008, Nature Precedings no longer accepted proposals and
so a proposal to the Gates Foundation was made public on Harel's S.C.I.E.n.C.E
wiki, set up for this purpose [105], and Scridb [106].
As for drafts of papers, not all instances of started drafts end up as submis-
sions to journals in a rapid and straightforward way. If the drafts are always
public and indexed in search engines, there is a chance for someone to make
use of even partial information from the very start. For existing or potential
collaborators, this information can facilitate a deeper understanding and more
effi cient exchange of ideas, especially when the proposals or drafts of papers
reference experiments in open notebooks. Writing a paper on a wiki essentially
is a form of preprint, and journal guidelines should be consulted for subse-
quent submission for peer-reviewed publication [107]. Reports about other
students writing up at least a part of their thesis openly started to appear [108].
25.3.8
Media Coverage: Collaborations with Journalists and Authors
By defi nition, a collaboration involves any situation where two or more parties
work together to the benefi t of all involved. In the case of ONS, journalists
and authors of review articles in both the popular media and the peer-reviewed
literature turned out to be important collaborators. The journalists obtained
material for their pieces on the changing dynamics of scientifi c collaboration
and the open-science movement and projects like UsefulChem received a
signifi cant amount of coverage that often led to new collaborations with other
scientists as a result. News coverage also proved to be critical to lending legiti-
macy to the effort allowing the Wikipedia entry on ONS to be accepted in
October 2008 [109, 110] .
25.3.9
Other Open Notebook Science Projects
The foundation work established in Bradley's work has catalyzed a number
of other ONS projects, including a platform to share research proposal ideas
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