5 August 2020
Modelling Overlay Peer Review Processes with Linked Data Notifications was prepared by Paul Walk (COAR/Antleaf), Martin Klein (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Herbert Van de Sompel (DANS) and Kathleen Shearer (COAR), with input from a group of Use Case contributors.
It presents a simple model using widely adopted technologies and protocols for exchange between services, and builds on previous work undertaken through the COAR Next Generation Repository Initiative and the Pubfair Framework to define new roles, technologies, and behaviours for repositories.
Scholarly knowledge comes in a variety of formats beyond the article or monograph (e.g. datasets, software, protocols, “grey literature”) and all these formats hold the potential to spark new discoveries. As knowledge is continuously evolving (and at an unprecedented rate) and in an age where immediate dissemination via the Web is possible, the concept of a “publication” as a discrete output that follows the completion of research work can be challenged. At the same time, much potential remains to innovate around the traditional article itself; to think beyond the PDF-paradigm and leverage, for example, incremental publishing, live data and interactive figures.
The authors believe the model being proposed could greatly accelerate innovation in scholarly communications, and it is especially timely as we are more aware of the need for rapid sharing of research outputs during the pandemic. It is highly scalable, it can support diversity in users, research products, and communities, and it is also a sustainable solution, because the costs of managing the system are distributed across many institutions.
Public comments on this model are invited, via the COAR Comments Press website until September 11, 2020.