Day 3 - Bloomsbury Conference - Part I

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/conferences/bloomsbury/2012
With ten presenters in one day, I will not give an overview of each presentation since the link has been provided to each presentation. However, I will mention the ideas and people that resonated with me the most. In this social media age, which I'm struggling to embrace, there was a twitter hashtag which received lots of use: #BC6
The full agenda and links to presentations can be found here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/conferences/bloomsbury/bloomsburyconferenceprogramme2012

There were several presentations that covered science.
Dr. Michael Jubb, Director of the Research Information Network, spoke about the Finch Report which had just been released in the previous week.
With the findings of the Finch Report, major support would be given to OA publishing since researching would no longer be held by large companies that make enormous profits.
“Under the scheme, research papers that describe work paid for by the British taxpayer will be free online for universities, companies and individuals to use for any purpose, wherever they are in the world.” That’s a breakthrough.

Dr. Grant Lewison, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Research Oncology, Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London and  Dr. Lee-Ann Coleman, the Head of Scientific, Technical and Medical Information at British Library mentioned using the research that exists to provide better care. Since the information that currently exists is usually so convoluted, there are groups whose only job is to summarize a 400 page into a one page summary.  Giving the general public access to this information will benefit all and possibly prevent illness. Offering more morally sound, pragmatic information that is clear to the masses will be a breakthrough.

Michael Taylor, Research Specialist, Elsevier Labs mentioned the attack of bibliometrics in terms of how things used to be versus how they are today. Is it possible to predict impact? With web analytics, there are similar terms but different rationales and the playing field is definitely not level.  With citations, mass media, tweets and usage counts, the information is shareable. Will this kill peer review? That was met with a resounding no. I'm still trying wrap my brain around Taylor's use of tweetation. Will it catch on? Only time will tell.