If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0

Added by Catherine Gray on 06 July 2010

7 comments

This project looks at the extent of adoption of different web 2.0 tools in different subject fields and disciplines, and the different types of researchers who are using them.

The RIN commissioned a team from Manchester eResearch Centre (MeRC), University of Manchester, and the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI), University of Edinburgh, to conduct this project and the team’s own project homepage is here.

The project enquires into the factors that influence researchers to adopt and use Web 2.0 tools, and conversely the factors that prevent, constrain or discourage usage.


The study also explores whether and how web 2.0 tools are changing researchers’ behaviour in significant ways, and what implications this might have for researchers, institutions, librarians, information professionals and funders. We sought evidence on whether web 2.0 tools are:

  • making data easier to share, verify and re-use, or otherwise facilitating more open scientific practices
  • changing discovery techniques or enhancing the accessibility of research information
  • changing researchers publication and dissemination behaviour, (for example, due to the ease of publishing work-in-progress and grey literature), and
  • changing practices around communicating research findings (for example through opportunities for iterative processes of feedback, pre-publishing, or post-publication peer review).

The report and briefing sheet are available to download below. If you would like hard copies of either documents please email contact@rin.ac.uk

The recent paper from the Philosophical Translations of the Royal Society is also available here.

Comments

Anonymous said on 09 January 2012 at 11:00am:

A really interesting read!

You may be interested in our 2008 paper, called, erm, “If You Build It Will They Come?” as well…. am sure this was just synchronicity, and use of a well known phrase. (It would have come up if you had done a literature search though).

Warwick,C. Terras, M., Huntington, P., and Pappa, N. (2008). “If You Build It Will They Come? The LAIRAH Study: Quantifying the Use of Online Resources in the Arts and Humanities through Statistical Analysis of User Log Data”. Literary and Linguistic Computing.23(1), 85-102. Available for free from UCL’s repository, http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/176758/1/LLCpaperfinal.pdf

Hope this is interesting! thanks.

Anonymous said on 12 December 2011 at 5:39pm:

I believe “they will come” if the intentions behind the use of “web 2.0” are in the right place, ie: it should be made to find any scholarly essay,celexa dosage report, article, or any other resource. Free, fast, and dependable distribution is key.

Anonymous said on 06 December 2011 at 6:46pm:

This is an excellent post, I was looking for this knowledge.

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Anonymous said on 01 July 2011 at 1:32pm:

The scientific wiki www.SklogWiki.org hosts a page of web links dedicated to interesting reading pertaining to Wikis and Science 2.0.

Anonymous said on 01 April 2011 at 4:57pm:

I think that researchers use pretty well web 2.0

Anonymous said on 01 February 2011 at 11:42pm:

I believe “they will come” if the intentions behind the use of “web 2.0” are in the right place, ie: it should be made to find any scholarly essay, report, article, or any other resource. Free, fast, and dependable distribution is key.

Anonymous said on 27 December 2010 at 2:27am:

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