<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

myExperiment has focused on support for sharing pieces of research method, such as scientific workflows and experimental plans, in order to address a specific need in the research community in both conducting research and training researchers. Experimental plans, standard operating procedures and laboratory protocols are descriptions of the steps of a research process, commonly undertaken manually. Scientific workflows are one of the most recent forms of scientific digital methods, and one that has gained popularity and adoption in a short time – they represent the methods component of modern in silico science and are valuable and important scholarly assets in their own right. Repositories often emphasise curation of data, but in digital research the curation of the process around that data is equally important – methods are crucial intellectual assets of the research life cycle whose stewardship is often neglected (Goble and De Roure 2008), and by focusing on methods, myExperiment provides a mechanism for expert and community curation of process in a rapidly changing landscape.

While it shares many characteristics with other Web 2.0 sites, myExperiment’s distinctive features to meet the needs of its research user base include support for credit, attributions and licencing, fine control over privacy, a federation model and the ability to execute workflows. Hence myExperiment has demonstrated the success of blending modern social curation methods (social tagging, crowd sourcing) with the demands of researchers sharing hard-won intellectual assets and research works within the scholarly communication lifecycle.

Research objects

The Web 2 design patterns (O’Reilly 2005) tell us “Data is the next Intel Inside. Applications are increasingly data-driven. Therefore for competitive advantage, seek to own a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data.” Significantly, myExperiment also recognises that a workflow can be enriched as a sharable item by bundling it with some other pieces which make up the “experiment”. Hence myExperiment supports aggregations of items stored in the myExperiment repository as well as elsewhere. These are called “packs”, and while a pack might aggregate external content stored in multiple specialised repositories for particular content types, the pack itself is a single entity which can be tagged, reviewed, published, shared etc. For example, a pack might correspond to an experiment, containing input and output data, the experimental plan, associated publications and presentations, enabling that experiment to be shared. Another example is a pack containing all the evidence corresponding to a particular decision as part of the record of the research process. Packs are described using the Open Archives Initiative’s Object Reuse and Exchange representation which is based on RDF graphs and was specifically designed with this form of aggregation in mind (Van de Sompel 2009).

While some publishers are looking at how to augment papers with supplemental materials, raising concerns about peer-review and about decay, myExperiment is tackling this from first principles by starting with the digital artefacts and asking “what is the research object that researchers will share in the future?” These Research Objects have important properties:

Questions & Answers

what is mutation
Janga Reply
what is a cell
Sifune Reply
how is urine form
Sifune
what is antagonism?
mahase Reply
classification of plants, gymnosperm features.
Linsy Reply
what is the features of gymnosperm
Linsy
how many types of solid did we have
Samuel Reply
what is an ionic bond
Samuel
What is Atoms
Daprince Reply
what is fallopian tube
Merolyn
what is bladder
Merolyn
what's bulbourethral gland
Eduek Reply
urine is formed in the nephron of the renal medulla in the kidney. It starts from filtration, then selective reabsorption and finally secretion
onuoha Reply
State the evolution relation and relevance between endoplasmic reticulum and cytoskeleton as it relates to cell.
Jeremiah
what is heart
Konadu Reply
how is urine formed in human
Konadu
how is urine formed in human
Rahma
what is the diference between a cavity and a canal
Pelagie Reply
what is the causative agent of malaria
Diamond
malaria is caused by an insect called mosquito.
Naomi
Malaria is cause by female anopheles mosquito
Isaac
Malaria is caused by plasmodium Female anopheles mosquitoe is d carrier
Olalekan
a canal is more needed in a root but a cavity is a bad effect
Commander
what are pathogens
Don Reply
In biology, a pathogen (Greek: πάθος pathos "suffering", "passion" and -γενής -genēs "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is anything that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ. The term pathogen came into use in the 1880s.[1][2
Zainab
A virus
Commander
Definition of respiration
Muhsin Reply
respiration is the process in which we breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide
Achor
how are lungs work
Commander
where does digestion begins
Achiri Reply
in the mouth
EZEKIEL
what are the functions of follicle stimulating harmones?
Rashima Reply
stimulates the follicle to release the mature ovum into the oviduct
Davonte
what are the functions of Endocrine and pituitary gland
Chinaza
endocrine secrete hormone and regulate body process
Achor
while pituitary gland is an example of endocrine system and it's found in the Brain
Achor
what's biology?
Egbodo Reply
Biology is the study of living organisms, divided into many specialized field that cover their morphology, physiology,anatomy, behaviour,origin and distribution.
Lisah
biology is the study of life.
Alfreda
Biology is the study of how living organisms live and survive in a specific environment
Sifune
Got questions? Join the online conversation and get instant answers!
Jobilize.com Reply

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Research in a connected world. OpenStax CNX. Nov 22, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10677/1.12
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Research in a connected world' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask