Maximizing the Reach of a Graduate Research Journal Through Open Source Tools and Social Media: The Session Blog
Presenter: Rajendra Bose
July 10th, 2009 at 3:30 p.m.
(used with permission from Raj Bose)
Background Info
Cultural Formations is an online journal (due to launch next month) that is open-access and peer-reviewed. The Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS) collaborated with Columbia University’s Teachers College to form Students for a Cultural Studies Initiative (SCSI). This project has grown to become more than just an online journal, using the concepts of Web 2.0 and Social Media as well as a research repository, Academic Commons.
As quoted on the Cultural Formations website, the journal-plus project has “…three integrated elements: an online journal of peer-reviewed articles, a blog for discussion of published articles and works in progress, and a wiki to serve as a “Wikipedia” of cultural studies and education.”
Session Overview
Graduate students at Columbia University and the Teachers College joined forces to form SCSI. Over the past year, they have worked hard to start a “journal-plus” – an online space that looks at cultural formations including youth culture, media, music, art, film and ethnicity, etc. Their goal is to not only publish research but to be accessible to the entire community, not just academic scholars. Along the way they were faced with significant challenges (examples include web design, technical problems with layout of the vastly different programs and challenges from having multiple partners with decision-making authority). They are however on schedule to launch their site next month. (Please stay tuned to this blog for the launch announcement!)
Services they hope to provide
- Publications – e.g. online books, journals
- Conferences
- Academic Commons
- Wikischolars
An example of what their website will look like:
(Used with permission from Raj Bose)
The goals of the Cultural Formations site are three-fold:
- authority of a journal
- immediacy of a blog
- what’s new and emerging in wiki format
(Used with permission from Raj Bose)
The site is scheduled to launch in August 2009 at Culturalformations.columbia.edu (URL may change prior to launch).
Questions from the audience
1. Impressive. Will you open this up to the public as open source?
Yes, we are using all open access materials. The idea is to share it with the rest of the community, Users may have to connect with us to get a user profile as it may be too expensive to allow it open to all users at once. There likely will be a basic free level, and we may charge for some of the more advanced functions. We feel the site will have longevity with the article content/repository.
2. Is there a similar movement in other universities?
Yes, but the idea right now is to work with university presses and authors right here to get the right agreements.
3. Is there going to be any co-ordination with other groups?
Already there are 50-100 student journals with OJS [Open Journal System]. You especially want this system for longevity when a student group starts to fade out, this will help. The university hosting this site will help keep those groups up and running.
4. What about groups with other levels of education and how this may be used?
This idea is not a typical journal, but the idea to connect a blog and a wiki so that other members of community can join or help is amazing and very inclusive. Because of this, there will only be a light peer review. They partners want to keep this as open as possible.
Related Links
Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS)
Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange (OAI-ORE)
