Dissemination in a Digital Era

If research dissemination is the process of sharing information and knowledge to as wide an audience as possible, then the ease of use and reach of the web 2.0 should be a natural fit. Unfortunately, this has not necessarily been the case and the reasons lie in a complicated web of economics, copyright, and the "allocation of academic capital" (Lariviere, Haustein & Mongeon, 2015).

Menachem Wecker, in his article Should you Share Your Research on Academia.edu, gives a very pro-arguement for the use of this social media site for self-publishing and the dissemination of research. He likens its use to that of Linkedin as a professionals' social networking site but with more added benefits.  He describes it as a "pared-down social network (that) lets users connect with colleagues, post their own publications, and track the readership of their work - all without having to dig through photographs of people's cats and reactions to whatever is on TV" (Wecker, 2014). Its popularity among academics for the ease of disseminating research has large publishers, such as Elsevier, pushing back against the site and demanding "take-downs" based on copyrights infringements (Wecker, 2014).

I was not surprised by Elsevier's reaction to Academia.edu and its take-down campaign. |This publisher is reacting to protect its market share/profit and open access to research is a threat to its business model... at least that is what I thought!

In contrast, Lariviere, Haustein and Mongeon (2015) in their article The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era, show through their research how the digital era has created five super-powers in journal publishing. In particular, between 1973 to 2013,  "Reed-Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and Taylor & Francis increased their share of the published output... combined, the top five most prolific publishers account for more than 50% of all papers published in 2013" (Lariviere, Haustein & Mongeon, 2015). These publishing houses are actually increasing their profits each year rather than decreasing. This research finding is a revelation for me and begs the question of why and how? And, if their profits are increasing, what is the motive behind their take-down campaign against Academia.edu and other similar open access sites?

The authors of this article ask a similar question in their conclusion when they ponder "What is it that they provide that is so essential to the scientific community that we collectively agree to devote an increasingly large proportion of our universities budgets to them?" (Lariviere, Haustein & Mongeon, 2015). One reason they speculate is that it has to do with what they call the "allocation of academic capital", which is (1) the need for young academics to publish in respectable/recognizable journals in order to gain tenure; (2) the need for older academics to publish in order to maintain tenure and/or grants; and (3) the effects of bibliometric indicators that calculate the number of published articles based solely on established journals (Lariviere, Haustein & Mongeon, 2015).

Does anyone else see this as a cat chasing its own tail?

References:
Larivière V, Haustein S, Mongeon P (2015) The oligopoly of academic publishers in the digital era. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0127502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127502
Wecker, M. (2014, Feb. 20). Should you share your research on Academia.edu? [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://chroniclevitae.com/news/345-should-you-share-your-research-on-academia-edu

Go Forth and Disseminate...

What do we mean when we talk about the dissemination of research? The word itself, disseminate means (1) to spread abroad as though sowing seed, and (2) to disperse without (Merriam-Webster, 2015). So, when we talk about the dissemination of knowledge or research, we're really talking about the spreading out or disbursement of ideas.

There is no arguing that the internet has fundamentally changed the ease with which we interact with, acquire and disseminate information and knowledge. As an educator (and budding researcher), this paradigm shift is essential to our understanding of, and interaction with, academia. The internet has transformed the industry of education from a model of scarcity to one of abundance."Abundance changes the basic assumptions of business, violating that old conventional wisdom that scarcity equals value" (Michalski, 2010). Knowledge is no longer scarce and value is better defined by our ability to trust the source of our information rather than the difficulty  of its acquisition.  This is the basis of the argument that Michalski (2010) builds to justify what he has coined as the Relationship Economy; an economy based on trust, openness, and the building of communities.

In his blog article What is a Relationship Economy, Michalski states that successful companies will be ones that are able to build "authentic relationships with their clients" (Michalski, 2010) and are able to trust their customers with being able to make their own choices. This sentiment is echoed by Suarez (2003) in his article Giving Up Control in an Era of Open Business. Using the examples of the television and music industries, Suarez highlights the need to trust audiences to know what they want, how they want it and when they want it. Giving up control and trusting the consumer is essential for success in today's relationship economy (Suarez, 2003).

So why is this relevant to education and research? I have always felt that education is based in building relationships... that it is not just about the pushing out of information.  However, academia has a reputation for being highly institutionalised and, like the music and television industries, could learn a few lessons about trusting its customers. But are we ready to relinquish control? What would a new academia look like if it were to reinvent itself to meet the needs of the relationship economy? I believe that we are at the cusp of a massive paradigm shift with the development and use of open resources, MOOCS, big data, academic blogs and twitter feeds. No longer are universities, colleges and academic journals acting as gatekeepers to the dissemination of knowledge. Academics are finding and using their own voices in creative new ways and expanding their reach to global audiences.

These are exciting times and we are part of this era of transformation. As Kevin Spacey states in his Keynote address at the Edinburgh Television Festival, if we give our audience (clients, students, customers... insert the right pronoun here) what they are looking for, they will "engage with it with a passion and an intimacy that a blockbuster movie could only dream of. All we have to do is give it to them" (Spacey, 2013).

So, go forth and disseminate!

References:

Disseminate. (2015). In Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disseminate
Michalski, J. (2010, June 4). What is the Relationship Economy? [Weblog post]. Retrieved from http://therexpedition.com/?s=What+is+the+Relationship+Economy
Suarez, L. (2013, Sept. 3). Giving up control in the Era of Open Business [Weblog post]. Retrieved from http://www.elsua.net/2013/09/03/giving-up-control-in-the-era-of-open-business/
The Telegraph. (2013). Spacey urges TV channels to give control to viewers [Video]. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/P0ukYf_xvgc