The Research Collaboration Tool

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The Research Collaboration Tool

• NFAIS annual meeting
• Philadelphia, PA
• February 23, 2009
• Daviess Menefee

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is

• scientific research online open
  collaboration social tool public tags
  participative private find share ratings
  connect accessible comments discovery people
  explore

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Why develop 2collab?

• Explore and understand new types of content and
  the ways in which users interact with it
• Customer expectations are changing connect with
  users understand those changes and their impact
  
• Build and consolidate virtual scientific
  communities
• Increase productivity of research by facilitating
  the exchange of knowledge and thus shorten
  research cycles
• Create additional value and awareness of
  knowledge already existing in our traditional
  content

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Advantages for Scientists

• Discover new research material
• Share and identify quality information
• Avoid blind alleys through communication with
  peers
• Collaborate without email
• Mine collective wisdom of experts
• Stay current with what others are saying in your
  field
• Hold discussions either in private groups or
  openly with the wider scientific community

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2collab - Power research productivity through
collaboration
2collab provides a more focused and noise-free
forum than general purpose social-bookmarking and
networking sites
Content
Users

• Organise It!
• Online resources article references,
  experiments, blogs, datasets
• Share It!
• Privately with your research group, or open, with
  everyone
• Discover It!
• new research material, new sources, people,
  groups, discussions

• Increase discoverability of own published
  papers, express and discuss current interests
• Form Groups for existing networks, or new ones
• Identify new collaboration opportunities,
  specialists in your field

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Links ScienceDirect to 2Collab

• With one click, an article is bookmarked and all
  associated bibliographic data (needed for a full
  reference) is included as well.

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Links 2collab to ScienceDirect
- bookmark the journal itself, not just article
level - Integrate user generated information for
articles bookmarked in 2collab back into the
article screen on ScienceDirect. This gives
users ratings (from users), tags, no. of times
bookmarked, comments and groups it has been
shared with.
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2collab integration in Scopus

• All bibliographic / reference information is
  pre-populated when using the Bookmark button in
  Scopus
• Tags are suggested, which you can change
• Integrated Scopus cited by counts added
  automatically

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research productivity share
- Install the browser button and with one click
capture all article metadata from a large variety
of sources
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Research Productivity share with others
3 types of groups Open public group - visible
and open to join for everyone Closed public
group visible and permission based
joining Private group - only visible to
invited members
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Evolution of

• 2collab was developed in conjunction with
  Elseviers world-class usability labs, and with
  the combined technology teams behind
  ScienceDirect and Scopus
• After successful user tests and reviews, 2collab
  was launched as a beta in June 2007 and we worked
  closely with Elseviers Development Partners,
  which includes top academic and government
  research institutes worldwide to fully develop
  the application
• Prior to launch, influential science bloggers
  received a preview of 2collab and further input
  into our development. This engagement with the
  research community has set the tone for the close
  collaboration we have with our users
• 2collab officially launched to all users on
  November 27th 2007
• Agile development continues to improve users
  experience, ensuring a fast-to-market
  implementation of (prioritised) feedback and new
  features
• 15 Average month on month growth rate

2008Information Age names 2Collab Top Ten
application of Web 2.0 in business applications
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Survey How are scientists using social tools?

• Survey aiming to investigate current level of
  adoption, attitude towards, and perceptions about
  future impact of, social media on research
  workflow and collaboration.
• Date of Survey May, 2008
• Conducted as an independent survey (no mention of
  Elsevier)
• Contacts 40,000 randomly sampled international
  academic faculty and government contacts
• Response 1,824 (4.6)
• Definition used social media (Wikipedia entry)

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Scientific social technographics
Source (2collab) Social Media survey - May 2008
- 1,824 respondents
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Current use of social applications

• Find interesting information
• Professional research
• Stay up-to-date with news
• Research collaboration
• Keep in touch with friends colleagues

The faculty of tomorrow (people currently aged
25-44, published 1-10 articles) are already
embracing social applications as part of how they
wish to consume and share scientific and
technical information
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Most Important Impact in the next 5 years?
In 5 years, over 50 of respondents see social
applications playing a key role in shaping nearly
all aspects of research workflow
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In summary

• 2Collab positions Elsevier to take advantage of
  the rise of social networking among young
  researchers in the scientific fields.
• 2Collab continues to grow using the Agile
  development process as new features, based on
  user experience and feedback, are added to it.
• The learning experience with this product has
  been valuable to the company as well as the
  entire team. 2Collab has fostered innovation
  through closer interaction with our users and
  researchers.

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Thank You!