Abstract
AbstractDespite the internet’s dynamic and collaborative nature, scientists continue to produce grant proposals, lab notebooks, data files, conclusions etc. that stay in static formats or are not published online and therefore not always easily accessible to the interested public. Because of limited adoption of tools that seamlessly integrate all aspects of a research project (conception, data generation, data evaluation, peer-reviewing and publishing of conclusions), much effort is later spent on reproducing or reformatting individual entities before they can be repurposed independently or as parts of articles.We propose that workflows - performed both individually and collaboratively - could potentially become more efficient if all steps of the research cycle were coherently represented online and the underlying data were formatted, annotated and licensed for reuse. Such a system would accelerate the process of taking projects from conception to publication stages and allow for continuous updating of the data sets and their interpretation as well as their integration into other independent projects.A major advantage of such workflows is the increased transparency, both with respect to the scientific process as to the contribution of each participant. The latter point is important from a perspective of motivation, as it enables the allocation of reputation, which creates incentives for scientists to contribute to projects. Such workflow platforms offering possibilities to fine-tune the accessibility of their content could gradually pave the path from the current static mode of research presentation into a more coherent practice of open science.
Highlights
Like most areas of today’s life, science has dramatically changed since the advent of the internet
While there are numerous projects developing and applying so called Virtual Research Environments (VRE) - known as Collaboratories - covering selected stages of the scientific process, a platform spanning every phase is missing so far [1]
Data generation in academic research continues to rely strongly on manual labor. While this is mostly due to the relative low cost of labor force resulting from the academic system and the limited interdisciplinary education of science and engineering, the high potential of automation is mostly neglected
Summary
Like most areas of today’s life, science has dramatically changed since the advent of the internet. We want to discuss the mostly underutilized potential of representing all aspect of science in collaboratively used online workflow platforms. Since such platforms could help to realize Open Science, transparency of the funding cycles and access to all data in the research process, we will shed light on this special aspect and make recommendations regarding implementations. While there are numerous projects developing and applying so called Virtual Research Environments (VRE) - known as Collaboratories - covering selected stages of the scientific process, a platform spanning every phase is missing so far [1]. Overcoming such gaps and creating a seamless transition from bench to publication could speed up the research and, with it, the generation, distribution and reuse of knowledge
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