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Preliminary Program

The final program and schedule of events are now available. 

Based on suggestions from the membership, here is a preliminary list of sessions being organized for the Beyond the PDF2 conference, along with the organizer for that session.  BtPDF2 is designed to minimize formal presentations and maximize discussion and participation. Thus, each session may be organized in a different format to optimally serve the topic and those who are attending the meeting.  We will also be having sessions for demonstrations and flash talks highlighting tools, visions, challenges etc.  

As part of the registration process, we ask you to tell us why you want to attend the conference, your vision for the future of scholarly communication and also whether you are interested in giving a flash talk or demonstration.  We encourage you to make more material about your interests and expertise, e.g., links to talks, presentations, available through the profile pages on the FORCE11 website.  Some session organizers will be selecting speakers and panelists from those who have registered.  We also encourage you to read the FORCE11 Manifesto, as we hope this meeting will help move the Manifesto "beyond a pdf" to action.
 

Abstract submissions

Abstract submission is now closed.

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Keynotes

Sessions

I.  New models for content creation:  text, data and multimedia (Tim Clark)

The scholarly communications ecosystem relies on the Web, but is it sufficiently optimized for the Web?  

Many of our colleagues believe it is not, and are attempting to fill vacant "ecological niches" with new models of content creation and aggregation. Some of these are in place already, some exist in a "gray literature" zone not officially recognized in the peer-review community, and some are simply interesting proposals.

The purpose of this session is to explore some of these models and provoke discussion and sharing of ideas. Among the topics to be considered will be:

*    Data and resource capture, integration, citation
Substantial work has been undertaken by a number of researchers and consortia on making primary data a first-class citable archival object in the scientific literature.  This has also been attempted for some resources such antibodies, databases and software.  What are the best practices and models for archiving, integrating and citing such resources?

*    Argumentation structure
Is there a way to model – in a useful way – the argumentative structure of scholarly contributions?  How might this be integrated with data and resource capture?  Is there advantage to researchers, publishers, reviewers, funders and/or resource providers in doing so? Although this area is not mature and consequently it is not possible to define "best practices", which are still emerging, we would like to see contributions on approaches to modeling argumentation.  

*    Mark up and annotation
Annotation of scholarly materials on the Web can be seen in the form of bibliographic metadata and keywords; comments and discussion threads; and to some extent, semantic markup. Are there good common models for representing these annotations so that they can be shared across applications?  What is the role of machine intelligence in markup? Can or should annotations also become "first class objects"?  

* Authoring support
Possibly the most common authoring tools used in the scholarly world today are Word, Google Docs and LaTex. Are there useful and interesting plugins for these tools, or entirely different authoring support environments, that could add richness and greater capability to the scholarly communications environment?

II. New models for content dissemination and review (Laura Czerniewicz and Jason Priem)

While traditional papers in traditional formats remain the bread and butter of scholarly communication the past 12-18 months have seen a significant amount of more exotic fillings. Venues for data publication, sharing software, workflows, as well as new mechanisms of distribution are increasing in number, but also more importantly gaining authors and users. In this session we invite short presentations from developers of new scholarly communications services followed by a panel session in which we will draw out the themes and look forward to coming developments in the next 12-24 months.

III.  New models for evaluation (Carole Goble)

• Reproducibility, Measuring and Reward

Reproducibility underpins the scientific method. For an experimental finding to be reproducible its materials must be available and its methods clear, accurate and transparent. Increasingly within the scholarly community (academics, funders, publishers, industry) there is a demand that published results are not just reported as reproducible but can be evaluated as such by independent third parties. This demand is being addressed by a range of models: from reproducibility certification (e.g. https://www.scienceexchange.com/reproducibility) through to computational platforms for re-running codes (e.g. http://runmycode.org).The cost entailed by supporting reproducibility must be balanced by rewards. New (alt)metrics are needed to discriminate between reproducible and merely reported research in order to impact reputation and credit, and drive cultural change. There must be rewards, too, for the provisioning of reproducibility platforms and for peer-evaluating in addition to peer-reviewing. The session will be focused on structured discussion, with an aim of producing a roadmap of concrete steps needed to realise new models of evaluation. We seek speakers willing to give lightning talks of 5 minutes duration on the topic, and two speakers who will give 10 minute context talks on (a) reproducibility and (b) altmetics. The rest of the session will be interactive, structured discussion.

IV.  Making the business case for new scholarly communications approaches (Cameron Neylon and Anita de Waard)

• This session will get down to the real issues of money, where it can and should come from, where it will need to go (and how much), with a focus on how to make a credible case for new systems and tools, and changes to existing ones. The session will be structured around a discussion format with the introduction of a model to structure discussion and testing of this against existing and proposed models. As well as the session itself we will engage with an open online discussion before and after the meeting to shape the content and focus of the session itself.

  The session will include discussion of business models to support data publication, and technical development, as well as how non-cash contributions are both recognized and rewarded. The question of mechanisms for shared resources and development and the tension with the value of competition will also be addressed. Specific questions to be addressed by the panelists will include:

  1. How should the services for scholarly communications be resourced?
     • What kinds of providers are appropriate players in the scholarly communications space (not-for profits, for-profits, institutions, privately/publicly held)?
     • How should resourcing for scholarly communications services be structured? Who pays? For what? And how? Are markets appropriate? If so, how should they work?
     • How can important but commercially non-viable activities be supported?
  2. What opportunities are there for new services provision?
     • Where can additional value be added?
     • What new services could be provided for the research community?
     • What are the opportunities to service other sectors (policy development, journalism, education, industry)?
     • What structures are required to surface opportunities and encourage their exploration? Is the market enough?
  3. How should incumbents change? How should transition be managed?
     • Are existing players fit for purpose? If not, why not?
     • What changes do incumbents need to make? Who to hire? What expertise?
     • Who manages the transition? The market? A collective? The community?

V.  Making it happen (Eduard Hovy, Maryann Martone)

• Recommendations for action?

FORCE11 is designed to serve as a focal point for the larger community interested in accelerating the pace of innovation in scholarly communications. We recognize that there have been many approaches proposed and tools built. Where are they now? Is the community coalescing around a subset of them? Are some of proven value but need broader dissemination? Can we imagine a larger architecture in which these can exist side by side and interoperate? "Making it happen" addresses a specific call to action by meeting attendees. This session will feature selected flash talks about technologies/tools/frameworks/standards/containers that need support or acceptance from scholars in some way to move them to the next level. After a discussion, the results of this session will be used to help shape the definition of the next generation FORCE11 platform, currently a community forum and a listing of software tools, that can continue to help accelerate the pace of change through dissemination, community adoption, match making, common API’s, a software repository, for example. Additional technical discussions can be held over lunch. If you are interested, please include in your self-description for registration the line "want to participate in the Making it happen" session.  You can provide more details about what you'd like to present using this form. (submissions are now closed.  Please direct any questions to mmartone blank ucsd blank edu)

VI.  The Force11 Vision Session (Anita de Waard and Eduard Hovy)

How will you change scholarly communication?

Can you tell us, in three minutes or less, how you will change scholarly communications and e-Science?  In this session, we invite anyone with an idea, a demo, a vision, a manifesto, or technology that can bring scholarly communication to the next stage to climb on their virtual soapbox and tell us how to change. This session is devoted to new, crazy, out-of-the-box, revolutionary ideas; demo’s of apps, interfaces, smart tools, gadgets, things-that-blog, lab software, or anything else you care to show us; the only limitation is the time there is to talk about it.  

Setup:

• You have three minutes to explain your idea, or show your demo or video.
• After this, a jury of leading scientists, developers, and software revolutionaries, as well as a critical audience will ask you questions for one minute
• Then it’s time for the next candidate

Criteria:

• How new/revolutionary is the idea?
• What is the scope of the idea (e.g., size of subject area, aspects of workflow affected, etc.)
• How easy is the idea to implement?
• Which of the 6 points suggested in the Force11 Manifesto does the idea address — or does it add new categories?

Submissions: 

• Submissions are now closed.  Please send any questions via email to mmartone blank ucsd blank edu. 
• The top-selected presenters have be notified and asked to present at the Vision session, to be held on March 19^th, 2013, at the workshop, in the Pakhuis De Zwijger in Amsterdam.
• The winner will receive the prestigious Force11 ‘Agent of Change’ award and a very cool gadget.
• All presentations will be displayed on the Force11 website.

VII.  Demonstrations

Demonstration stations will be available for those that would like to showcase their tools at the social on Tuesday evening.  If you'd like to give a demonstration, please use this form to provide a brief description. Poster boards will be available, but note that we will not be providing extra screens or projectors.