The National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) will host Blockchain for Scholarly Publishing, a conference on how blockchain could affect researcher workflows, including data collection, peer review, and access to published works. Attendees will explore blockchain's application, review case studies, and debate its challenges and opportunities for scholarly communication.
Blockchain technology, known for powering bitcoin and originally introduced as a means of securely managing cryptocurrency, is now quickly moving toward broader adoption and has begun to emerge in other fields, including scholarly publishing. The capabilities of this new technology are prompting a direct exchange among stakeholders as blockchain promises a more structured, secure approach that has the potential to significantly impact researcher workflows—from data collection, to peer review, to access of published work.
At its heart, blockchain is a decentralised, relational database that can aid the discovery of scientific research, more efficiently track provenance and citation, and allow enhanced access to content through permissions-based authentication. This conference, be held from May 15–16, 2018, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, Va., takes the blockchain discussion to the next level—from hypothetical to practical—as it explores blockchain's application, examine case studies, and discuss and debate the challenges and opportunities blockchain brings to the scholarly communication value chain.
Christopher E. Wilmer (co-author of Bitcoin for the Befuddled) will give the opening keynote speech, 'Scholars Keep Records: Blockchains as a Natural Step Towards Better Record Keeping.'
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