Call for submissions for a project on The Use and Relevance of Web 2.0 Tools for Researchers

The Research Information Network has put out a cal for expressions of interest in running a research project on how Web 2.0 tools are changing scientific practice. The project will be funded up to Â£90,000. Expressions of interest are due on Monday 3 November (yes next week) and the projects are due to start in January. You can see the call in full here but in outline RIN seeking evidence whether web 2.0 tools are:

• making data easier to share, verify and re-use, or otherwise

facilitating more open scientific practices;

• changing discovery techniques or enhancing the accessibility of

research information;

• changing researchersâ€ publication and dissemination behaviour,

(for example, due to the ease of publishing work-in-progress and

grey literature);

• changing practices around communicating research findings (for

example through opportunities for iterative processes of feedback,

pre-publishing, or post-publication peer review).

Now we as a community know that there are cases where all of these are occurring and have fairly extensively documented examples. The question is obviously one of the degree of penetration. Again we know this is small – Iâ€ m not exactly sure how you would quantify it.

My challenge to you is whether it would be possible to use the tools and community we already have in place to carry out the project? In the past weâ€ ve talked a lot about aggregating project teams and distributed work but the problem has always been that people donâ€ t have the time to spare. We would need to get some help from social scientists on process and design of the investigation but with Â£90,000 there is easily enough money to pay people properly for their time. Indeed I know there are some people out there freelancing already who are in many ways already working on these issues anyway. So my question is: Are people interested in pursuing this? And if so, what do you think your hourly rate is?