From: "Research Trends (ELS-AMS)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:48:40 +0000

Dear colleagues,

On Tuesday, 22nd January 2013, Research Trends and the Elsevier Labs
co-hosted their first virtual seminar: The Individual and Scholarly
Networks. The event attracted over 500 attendees from all over the
world, and featured six compelling external speakers. We used a novel
format aimed to maximise engagement: in addition to audio and slides,
we showed videos of the speakers and Twitter feed.

Materials from the event including recordings of each session and
discussion, presentations, and a Q&A transcript for those questions
that we were unable to address live, are now all freely available at
http://www.researchtrends.com/virtualseminar/. Unfortunately we were
not able to get rid of some of the technical issues affecting audio in
the second part of the event.

There were two components to the event. The first part focussed on
building networks, and the ways in which relationships are formed and
maintained, as well as how they are changing the nature of scholarly
relationships. In this session, Prof. Jeremy Frey  discussed how
varying degrees of openness aid scientific collaboration, while Gregg
Gordon presented an overview of the Social Science Research Network.
Then, Dr William Gunn talked on building networks through information
linking, using Mendeley as an example. The second part was about
evaluating network relationships, exploring the related areas of
alternative metrics, contributorship and the culture of reference. In
this session, Dr Gudmundur Thorisson discussed digital scholarship and
the recently launched ORCID initiative, while Kelli Barr questioned
the purpose of and objectivity of evaluations. Finally, Dr Heather
Piwowar  explored various impact flavours, in particular ImpactStory.
Each session was followed by lively discussions amongst the
presenters, spurred by questions and comments from our remote
audience.

A summary of the event and highlights of the discussion can also be found here.

Best Regards,

Sarah
Sarah Huggett
Publishing Information Manager
Scientometrics & Market Analysis
Research & Academic Relations
Elsevier