2/22/2010
Thanks to the Internet, researchers can now link underlying data collections, models and algorithms to their published research reports, making it easier to verify, reproduce and re-use the results. The Netherlands is leading the way in setting up a knowledge infrastructure to store such “enhanced publications” and make them accessible. Its progress is due to the efforts of the Dutch higher education sector, united in the SURFshare programme.
The report Verrijkte publicaties: hoe verder? [Enhanced Publications: What Next?] explains the present situation in the Netherlands and beyond. It reviews experiments carried out in 2008 and 2009 and prepares the way for the next two years.
One of the report’s main conclusions is that the Netherlands is leading the way in this new technology. The Dutch repository infrastructure – repositories are special databases for storing publications – is well organised and there is a small but strong vanguard of Dutch researchers who have been experimenting and gaining valuable experience working with enhanced publications.
There are also a number of problems, however, that impede wide acceptance of this new way of communicating research results. The repository systems currently used in the Netherlands must be adapted before they can work with enhanced publications. More effort must also be made to meet researchers’ demands.
Researchers are unfamiliar with the concept of the enhanced publication, but they are looking for methods that will help them conduct their research in ways comparable to enhanced publications. Meeting their demand will involve modifying the terminology and approach used in enhanced publications so that researchers understand them.
Over the next two years, the SURFshare programme will be working on a repository infrastructure suitable for enhanced publications. The aim is for all institutions of higher education to be able to offer researchers simple enhanced publication facilities by late 2011. The higher education sector can offer interesting examples of what can be achieved with today’s technology.
The aim of the SURFshare programme, which runs until 2011, is to develop a shared infrastructure that will encourage access to/exchange of research information by means of the latest advances in ICT. The programme unites all the Dutch research universities, universities of applied sciences, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Enhanced publications are an important element of the programme.
The report can be downloaded (in Dutch).