Koblenz (Germany), 14-15 June 2011
An ACM Web Science Conference 2011 Workshop

Call for papers

The increasing quantity and velocity of scientific output is presenting scholars with a deluge of data. There is growing concern that scholarly output may be swamping traditional mechanisms for both pre-publication filtering (e.g peer review) and post-publication impact filtering (e.g. the Journal Impact Factor).

Increasing scholarly use of Web2.0 tools like CiteULike, Mendeley, Twitter, and blog-style article commenting presents an opportunity to create new filters. Metrics based on a diverse set of social sources could yield broader, richer, and more timely assessments of current and potential scholarly impact. Realizing this, many authors have begun to call for investigation of these “altmetrics.” (see altmetrics.org)

Despite the growing speculation and early exploratory investigation into the value of altmetrics, however, there remains little concrete, objective research into the properties of these metrics: their validity, their potential value and flaws, and their relationship to established measures. Nor has there been any large umbrella to bring these multiple perspectives together. The altmetrics11 workshop aims to  encourage both these. Submissions are invited from a variety of areas:

• New metrics based on social media
• Tracking science communication on the Web
• Relation between traditional metrics and altmetrics
• Peer-review and altmetrics
• Tools for gathering, analyzing, disseminating altmetrics

Important Dates

Submissions

Prospective authors should submit 2-page extended abstracts (max. 1000 words, not including references). If necessary, the workshop organizers will select the most relevant, original, and significant abstracts for presentation. Experimental results will be given preference, followed by technical reports on working altmetrics tools and position papers. All selected submissions will be published online for open peer review and discussion. Authors are encouraged to participate in the discussions of their work. Based on the presentations and online discussion, selected authors may be asked to submit full papers for peer-reviewed proceedings.

Location

The workshop is hosted by the ACM Web Science Conference 2011 (Koblenz, Germany). This interdisciplinary conference focuses on advances in studying the full range of social-technical relationships on the Web. Please visit the Web Science site for more information.

Organizers

• Paul Groth – VU University Amsterdam, NL
• Jason Priem –University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
• Dario Taraborelli – Wikimedia Foundation, USA

The organizers have an interdisciplinary background covering Sociology, Information and Library Science and Computer Science.

There is only a bunch of tickets left for one of the most exciting annual events in the area of ICT for science. Hosted by Mendeley, Nature and the British Library, the second edition of Science Online London (3-4 September 2010) promises to bring together hackers, academics, publishers and startups in the field of software/services for scientists to discuss “how the Web is changing the way we conduct, communicate, share, and evaluate research”. I will be attending and would love to meet other AcaProd readers there.

If you are interested in scientific blogging and collaborative tools for research and happen to be in the UK this summer, here’s an event not to be missed:

Science Online London 2009 will explore the latest trends in science online. How is the Web affecting the work of researchers, science communicators, journalists, librarians, educators, students? What can you do to make the best use of the growing number of online tools?

The event is cohosted by Mendeley and Nature Network. More information available here:

• www.scienceonlinelondon.org
• twitter.com/soloconf

Interdisciplines.org is hosting an electronic conference (sponsored by the Liquid Publications project) on the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on the format of a scientific paper and, more generally, on their effect on knowledge production practices in the scientific community.

It currently features three target articles open to online discussion:

1. What Science can learn from Google? by WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson
2. Peer-to-peer review by MediaCommons founder Kathleen Fitzpatrick
3. Back to Basics: How Technology and the Open Source Movement Can Save Science by philosopher and IP expert David Koepsell

(Conference announcement via Gerry McKiernan)

Science in the 21st Century: Science, Society, and Information Technology

Waterloo, Ontario, Sep 8-12, 2008.

Times are changing. In the earlier days, we used to go to the library, today we search and archive our papers online. We have collaborations per email, hold telephone seminars, organize virtual networks, write blogs, and make our seminars available on the internet. Without any doubt, these technological developments influence the way science is done, and they also redefine our relation to the society we live in. Information exchange and management, the scientific community, and the society as a whole can be thought of as a triangle of relationships, the mutual interactions in which are becoming increasingly important.

Topics covered by the conference include the following:

• Web/Web 2.0.
  Communication, Social and Information Networks, Wikis, Blogs, Information Overflow, and the Illusion of Knowledge
• Globalization
  Collaboration and Competition in the scientific community, The Global Village, the Limits of Growth, Science and Democracy
• Open Access
  Scientific Publishing, Science Journalism, Framing, and the ‘Marketplace of Ideas’
• Sociology
  Ethics, Morals, Trends, and their impact on scientific directions, organization of our communities, fragmentation, feedback, selection, and the ivory tower.
• Miscellaneous and Other
  Teaching, Information storage, Resilience and the next Generation

More: www.science21stcentury.org