The results of the explosion of easily available articles, according to Evans, is that "researchers can more easily find prevailing opinion, they are more likely to follow it, leading to more citations referencing fewer articles."
Online articles lead to rapid scientific consensus
Hmm - interesting - but what would be even more interesting is how online availability of scientific articles influences not science by itself but how it is applied. I would expect there much more dramatic changes.
1 comment:
Peter Suber (I think) discusses "the open access advantage" whereby authors who publish OA right now are more likely to get cited. But he points out that once more people publish OA, this advantage will disappear.
I find it hard to judge what the "prevailing" opinions in anthropology are, since even though few anthropologists make an effort to maintain a web presence, I can't keep up with them all!
One big change I'm pushing in my thesis is the ability to publish without peer review. I think big changes are going on as to how academics work together. Openly sharing research ideas prior to publishing is an interesting form of review in itself - and this has been the focus of my research into the anthropology blogsphere...
Anyways, great blog and thanks for letting me know about it. I'm looking forward to more!
Owen Wiltshire
nodivide.wordpress.com
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