The Consumption and Production of Fisheries Information in the Digital Age

Abstract

2.1 The Fisheries Information Life Cycle Fisheries scientists persistently create, communicate, and use information. In fact, if they did not, there would be no fisheries science. To exist, sciencemust be part of a continuum where shared information, from casual hallway communications to rigorously reviewed articles, documents the questions asked and the solutions suggested. Relevant information is critical to the success of basic and applied fisheries research projects. Identifying the relevant at the beginning of a project and then communicating what is important out of the project are elements of the life cycle of fisheries information. Both have become simultaneously easier andmore difficult as the amount of information increases within the digital environment. The access to information is simpler and yet more nuanced. As producers and consumers, we sustain the life cycle of fisheries information. We learn to consume information as students, often modeling our behavior from our professors. They give us a stack of reprints to read, and those articles become the foundation for our exploration into fisheries sciences.Or,we start with a pivotal article and work back through its references and forward through its sphere of influence defined by citations. Now, new alerting tools and search engines broaden our information horizons, enriching our perspectives while obscuring the relevant through the deluge. Consumption can be a feast of delectable facts, theories, datasets and findingsor anorgyof the same leaving indigestion rather then satisfaction. This changing information environment also affects scientists as producers of information. We are faced with a plethora of publishing options where once there were only a few selective journals. We can publish in highly specialized titles with limited audiences, target the mainstream with high impact journals, issue findings electronically through blogs or web sites, or present at conferences where all becomes part of a streaming video record. The decisions wemake when Chapter 2 October 3, 2008 Time: 21:18 Proof 1