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David,
Virtual journals do not contain articles
but point to articles made public elsewhere. Effectively they are current (sometimes
annotated) bibliographies for a specific subject. An example is the Virtual
Journal of Applications of Superconductivity
http://www.vjsuper.org/
which lists articles on superconductivity applications
published in a range of physics journals.
They have editorial boards (or equivalent
groups) that choose items for subject relevance but do not necessarily judge formal
quality leaving that to the original journal/publishers. VJAS only chooses from
a limited range of primary publications but there is not reason why a virtual
journal should be so limited. The point I was making was that the items listed
are chosen by human subject experts rather than keyword seeking software.
Where they act as subject filtering
front-ends to large repositories like ArXiv they are usually called ‘overlay
journals’.
Regards,
John.
From:
Repositories discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Sent: 13 May 2008 22:34
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Semantic Web (was RE:
Google, OAI and the IRs)
Hi John,
I can see social networking techniques replacing (or supplementing) coffee break meetings and even the old invisible college idea.
Yes, I would see social media is supplementing coffee breaks meetings,
conferences and the like. I not only want to be able to read your emails
but I want to be able to speak with you face-to-face as well.
However, unless you have specially designed social networking services focussed on the needs of researchers (and subject specific) the possibilities seem limited.
You raise an interesting point, namely that there is a possibility that
services that arise on the web may not be sufficiently well adapted to the
specific needs of academic communities to be of use to them. I don't know how
'designed' those academic services might have to be to be useful, but if there
is enough awareness then perhaps their development can be shaped in a better
way as they evolve?
Although now quite an old idea I still see a role for virtual journals.
If you mean open access journals, then I would hope that their role
increases! Without journals, open access repositories and preservation,
what would scholarly social networks have to share and talk about?
We still need to have humans who actually 'understand' rather than compare keywords in the loop. Only with understanding can you see analogies and recognise the possible usefulness of discoveries in other fields.
As Scott Wilson says in his reply, 'This is where the SN approach
shines'.
I agree entirely about watching what people do with these social networking (and other information related) tools. I think what we can predict with certainty is that they will do things the designers never intended :-) .
Quite, and not knowing how it will shake down makes it interesting to
follow.
Best regards,
Systems Librarian
Waterford Institute of Technology
http://library.wit.ie/
T: ++353.51302838
M: ++353.876693212