Following interviews and focus groups with researchers in seven contrasting research contexts, a new report, Collaborative yet Independent, identifies the range of contemporary challenges facing physical science researchers in a fast-evolving information landscape. The report was commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN), the Institute of Physics (IOP), IOP Publishing (IOPP) and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
The research notes that research councils, publishing houses, libraries and learned societies need to tailor their efforts to help physical scientists gather, manage and share research information. Seven research cases were analysed for the report, which is seen to demonstrate the richly varied ways in which physical scientists work, collaborate and share information and data.
Investigating the research habits of particle physicists, gamma ray burst astrophysicists, nuclear physicists, chemists, earth scientists, nanoscientists and the group of researchers who pioneered the Zooniverse platform, the report makes a series of recommendations to research councils, publishing houses, librarians and learned societies.
The report details many of the differences between the research groups, from the real-time research needs of particle physicists and gamma-ray burst astrophysicists to the premium placed by nuclear physicists and earth scientists on journals and peer-connections.
The report concludes with recommendations for research councils to increase efforts to link and share data; publishers to focus on the information landscapes of their target audiences and to build tools that meet the specific needs of those audiences; for learned societies to focus on creating opportunities for training which links experts who are using new information management techniques with their peers; and, for librarians to reinvent their roles while ensuring that researchers recognise their role as scientific consultants.
This report is the third in a series from RIN on research information management, following reports on both the information management practices of life sciences and humanities researchers.
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