Maximizing the benefit of research information
in Particle Physics***
A user-driven story
Anne Gentil-Beccot, CERN. EuroCris. 11 May 2010
The HEP “preprint culture”L.Goldschmidt-Clermont, 1965,
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00000445/02/communication_patterns.pdf
Scientific journals of ‘60s too slow for HEP
Mass-mail preprints to institutes worldwide
Ante litteram (institute-pays) Open Access
Leading libraries “serve” preprints
CERN Library, circa 1960
SPIRES: first electronic catalogue
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/papers/history.htmlhttp://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/interlab99/program/kunz/EarlyWeb.frame.pdf
• SLAC Library,1974: now 750’000 records• With Fermilab (US) and DESY (DE) Libraries • Electronic catalogue of preprints metadata• Updated with publication reference• Terminal, e-mail interface, 1st WWW in U.S.
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 91 17:55:53 GMT+0100From: [email protected] (Tim Berners-Lee)Subject: WWW to SPIRES on SLACVM - ExperimentalTo: [email protected], [email protected]
There is an experimental W3 server for the SPIRES High energy Physics preprint database, thanks to Terry Hung, Paul Kunz and Louise Addis of SLAC. It's only just been put up, so don't expect perfection. With the w3 line mode browser, follow a link to it from our home page,
- Tim
Paul Kunz wrote a few days ago:-
"The SLAC Library maintainer of SPIRES databases, Louise Addis, is absolutely delighted. She will ask for a permanent VM service machine and finish off the polishing. Things are really moving now.”
arXiv.org the archetypal repository
• P. Ginsparg, LANL, 1991. Now Cornell Library
• No mandate, no debate, author-driven• 1/2 Million preprints. Growing beyond HEP• Post-prints often resubmitted
http://vmsstreamer1.fnal.gov/VMS_Site_03/Lectures/Colloquium/presentations/090506Ginsparg.pdf
Ten years in the life of a HEP article
• SPIRES counts: citations to/from preprints/articles
• Citation peak before publications• Scientific discourse proceeds on discipline
repository
Citation augmentation• Discipline repository yields immense advantage
– Five times more citations for articles in arXiv– 20% of 2-year citations occur before
publication
Where do HEP scientists look for info?
• Survey of 2’000+ scientists (10% of community)
• OA tools answer scientists’ information needs
• Google as proxy of arXiv, SPIRES, publishers
Gentil-Beccot et al. arxiv:0804.2701
(As many scientists as analyzed here go straight to arXiv)
arXiv 82%
Publisher server 18%
∼30,000 clicks (choice between arXiv and journal)
Do HEP scientists read journals ?Gentil-Beccot et al. arxiv:0906.5418
What more do users want ?Gentil-Beccot et al. arxiv:0804.2701
Not importantVery important
Dep
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cove
rage
Qua
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of
cont
ent
Acces
s to
full
text
New needs ?Gentil-Beccot et al. arxiv:0804.2701
Not importantVery important
Cen
tral
izat
ion
Acc
ess
data
Con
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nce
slid
es
Web
2.0
- Depth of coverage- High quality of metadata- High acceptance by the community
- Stable and fast technology- Open Source (GPL) community - Based on open standards (MARCXML, OAI-PMH, etc)
COAR
OpenAIRE
D4 Science II
INSPIREhttp://www.projecthepinspire.net/
• Full-text search. Speed.• Citations, co-citations • AuthorID. Affiliations. Coauthors• Extractions of references• Integration of high level research data, tables and
graphs• Bi-directional feeds with arXiv and publishers• User generated tags, folksonomy meet ontology• …
Conclusions and Outlook
• HEP community has embraced Grey literature and repositories since decades
• Triggering infrastructures for metadata and communication
• Next HEP information system generation: INSPIRE– Single access point to all HEP literature and data– Integrated in the whole scientific world– Try it: http://inspirebeta.net