<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 6:39 AM Richard Poynder <<a href="mailto:richard.poynder@gmail.com" target="_blank">richard.poynder@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">“Designing a system that fosters
bibliodiversity, while also supporting research at the international level is
extremely challenging. It means achieving a careful balance between unity and
diversity; international and local; and careful coordination across different
stakeholder communities and regions in order to avoid a fragmented ecosystem.”</p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">That seems to me to be a key paragraph in
this document. And the pandemic — which requires that information is shared very
quickly and broadly, and across borders — does certainly highlight the fact that the current scholarly communication system leaves a lot to be desired. </p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p></div></div></div></blockquote><div>First , thanks for raising this and also quoting me.<br></div><div>I am going to be challenging as these are challenging times. I play the role of a socratic gadly and I will upset people. <br><br></div><div>I'm taking the view of the citizen in the street - in the Global South - who wants answers from academic knowledge. Not in 5 years time, not next month,</div><div>NOW.<br></div><div>If the repository system cannot address the needs of citizens in a time of urgency then it has failed the citizen. If it's creating an academia-only product then citizens can rightfully challenge it. <br></div><div>So, if you are still reading I call on the repository system to start supporting the need for universal knowledge. Everywhere.<br></div><div>And I'm going to set a timescale.</div><div><br></div><div>To create a universal interface to the worlds repositories by the end of JUNE 2020 (2020-06-30) <br></div><div><br></div><div>That is what emergencies demand.<br></div><div>Now most of you will be dismissing this as rubbish.<br></div><div>But it's possible. <br></div><div>My colleague Rick Smith-Unna, when a graduate student at Cambridge, and contracting to ContentMine, in 2015 wrote a wrapper for EuropePMC repository to systematic download articles in bulk (500 in a minute). It transforms the way that citizens can use the system. It probably took him about 2 weeks. He's a genius but there are geniuses out there who want to help.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The goal of the repository system in the COVID age must put citizens at the centre. I've had a request from a Spanish forensic scientist to answer the question:<br>"to collect as many scientific articles as possible regarding the
persistence of Covid-19 in different surfaces and materials that are
commonly studied in a forensic
setting, such as samples obtained form autopsies (skin, bones and body
fluids), porous and non-porous surfaces and textiles.<br>"</div><div>I have no doubt that many useful articles are contained in the world's repository system.<br></div><div>It should be able to help with that, now. And without specialist intermediaries.<br><br></div><div>Since you ask for action, which I agree, IMO the first action should be to build systems that work. Within 2 months. Not perfectly, not universal but work.<br><br></div><div>Rick built a wrapper for EuropePMC which with only one or two others (HAL and some other national repos) is the only repository that can support a global system. I don't use CORE because I have to surrender my details to get an API. I have tried to use US repos of theses and couldn't get past the rage of landing pagfes and controls.<br></div><div>Biorxiv doesn't yet have an API so I've built an interface in the last two weeks. It's clunky but I can download 600 papers on COVID in an hour, automatically. If the same was done globally, with a single point of entry, then we'd have a modern knowledge system.<br><br></div><div>So how to do it?<br></div><div>* set a goal and timescale as I have done<br></div><div>* get the worlds brightest grad students (probably 3rd year as they already know all the problems of scholarly literature) to work with your tech people and bibliography people to build a rapid prototype for mass download of raw text from your repo. The grad students are the most important part of this.<br><br></div><div>and then just go ahead, starting today.<br><br></div><div>And my daily call, if anyone wants to help us extract knowledge about COVID automatically, please join our <a href="https://github.com/petermr/openVirus">https://github.com/petermr/openVirus</a><br></div><div>I am disappointed that I'v had no response from readers of this list.<br><br></div><div>P.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><br><br></div><br clear="all"></div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>"I always retain copyright in my papers, and nothing in any contract I sign with any publisher will override that fact. You should do the same".<br></div><div><br></div><div>Peter Murray-Rust<br>Reader Emeritus in Molecular Informatics<br>Unilever Centre, Dept. Of Chemistry<br>University of Cambridge<br>CB2 1EW, UK<br>+44-1223-763069</div></div></div></div></div></div>