Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
publications if they are citable and appropriate credit is given to the authors.
There is no intrinsic reason why such publications need necessarily be full-
length papers. Published contributions could be as short as single statements
that interpret data and yet be equally valuable to scientifi c progress and under-
standing. If scientifi c assertions (unique concept triples) could be properly
attributed and credited, the incentive to publish them would increase, and
quite conceivably the speed of dissemination of useful research results.
Scientifi c assertions that are both citable and creditable to the authors are the
nanopublications that can be easily created in ConceptWiki. This opens up
many possibilities for new publication avenues. For instance, those authors
who are not in the position to have their papers published in prestigious jour-
nals, because they live and work in countries that do not have the research
infrastructure to facilitate top-level science, can still build up a public record
of their contributions to science. Especially for scientists in the developing
world, this may be a welcome addition to the possibilities they have for sharing
their knowledge and insights in a structural way. Additionally, the acknowledg-
ment of individual contributions made during the review process of new sci-
entifi c assertions will make initial publishing efforts more accessible to groups
that are currently underrepresented groups in the life sciences.
Authors publishing in PubMed have been imported into ConceptWiki.
When possible, each author has been disambiguated through a series of steps
based on their publications (shared title words, journal name, co-authors,
medical subject headings, language, and affi liation) as well as distinctive fea-
tures of their names [23]. The unambiguously assigned publications are
recorded on each ConceptWiki author page. Using these specifi c publications,
we have constructed a list of prominently fi guring concepts for each author
(i.e., concepts of interest). The list of concepts of interest is displayed on the
ConceptWiki author page and can be edited as appropriate. The concepts
shown in the concept of interest lists can be matched to concepts found in
scientifi c triples. From these matches, it is possible to actively solicit comments
and review from the ConceptWiki registered users on assertions that appear
important to them. Using this method, we explicitly target users within
established scientifi c domains to contribute data, relying on social account-
ability and self-interest in maintaining a positive refl ection within the specifi c
domain. Rather than gathering information common to all Web-enabled
humans, we directly target information that is known and verifi able only by
a defi ned group, which improves the quality of the annotations. The assertions
can be sent by e-mail or via mobile device or posted on the ConceptWiki
author page.
26.6
CULTIVATING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Given that the establishment of the life science Semantic Web will depend
primarily on the will and participation of its consumers [24], gentle processes
must be developed to bring regular life scientists into this domain. Recent
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