Discussing the ‘Future of Scholarly Communication’: A seminar organized by MCAA’s German Chapter, Hannover, October 7, 2019
The MCAA German chapter recently organized a very successful one-day seminar entitled ‘The Future of Scholarly Communication’ at TIB (Technische Informationsbibliothek), in Hannover, on October 7th. The event was organized by MCAA’s German Chapter Chair Marina Rantanen, together with Brian Cahill and chapter board members Gabor Kismihok, Veronica Dodero, Christian Weber, Marco Masia, and Scott Harrison.
The seminar featured interesting panels on science communication, open science, the peer-review process, and other current topics. The panels and discussions were engaging, and included input from students, post-doctoral researchers, policy-makers and researchers within academia, and in other fields.
The seminar began with a key note presentation titled the Future of Scholarly Publishing and Communication Revisited by Birgit Schmidt, the Head of Knowledge Commons, Göttingen State and University Library. This was followed by a session on ‘Maximizing Impact on Society through Open Science.’ I was happy to participate as a panelist in this session, together with Annette Klinkert, Executive Director, European Science Engagement Association (Eusea), and Wiebke Rössig, Project Leader and scientist, Museum für Naturkunde. Together, we discussed ways in which researchers can, and are increasingly expected to increase the impact of their research through public outreach.
In the afternoon, the seminar included a series of lightning talks on the practice and future of science communication. Gareth O’Neill, linguist and expert on Open Science, described Plan S and Open Science. Lambert Heller, Head of the Open Science Lab at TIB, and Grischa Fraumman, a research assistant at the Open Science Lab, reviewed alternative metrics of research performance. Markus Stocker, Knowledge Infrastructures Research Group Leader at TIB, then discussed the infrastructure of future services, and Birgit Schmidt offered ways to improve the peer-review system. Participants then took part in parallel roundtable discussions on some of the topics that had been discussed during the day, and reported back to the audience.
Roundtable discussions
Finally, members of the chapter were invited to attend a chapter meeting, followed by a lively social dinner at a local restaurant (Hugo’s).
The event was a great success, largely due to the excellent organization by MCAA’s German Chapter, who brought together a diverse range of experts from many different fields to discuss these important topics. Participants learned about effective ways to engage with stakeholders, to communicate their research to the public, alternative metrics for research evaluation, and the implications of these issues for their own career paths.
Nehama Lewis
@nehamalewis
Board Member, MCAA
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