Article-data linking: how trivial things are changing the world

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11 Jun 2019
Group(s) submitting the application: 
Meeting objectives: 

Scholix.org (Scholarly link exchange) has been around for a while, so most of you will know about it. Linking data to articles to improve discoverability, citability, alt metrics, and FAIRness of data is an old idea. What you may want to learn about is how this small idea has grown from conception to implementation  and is gaining momentum.

In our session we want to give you an overview where we collectively stand - including you!. Furthermore we want to increase the momentum, in this session particularly focused on how to increase the adoption of Scholix by journal publishers.

Last but not least, we again want to discuss if we should broaden our scope or if we want to remain focused on the basics by focusing on data-article links only. Scope expansion could for example include the types of objects that are linked (e.g. going beyond data to include software, workflows, reagents, and/or samples), or expanding the workflows that can be supported (e.g. including publishing status notifications in order to better support synchronization)

Overall: as trivial as it may seem to link articles to data, it has taken us years to get it going. Right now we are accelerating and are seeking your help to accelerate even more.

Meeting agenda: 

Collaborative session notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HQVKaBCJvrQBoqjS4Sp4mWsE2EJhsTpe4svYw7fCmZ8/edit?usp=sharing 

In our session we want to discuss three streams:

1) An overview of Scholix hubs:

  • An overview of the growth of article-data links

  • Implementation & adoption stories: how Scholix is being used in practice

  • Implementation progress: contributor API & consuming API progress

  • Scalability

We hope to get joint contributions from Crossref, DataCite, EBI, OpenAire, and PMC/Pubmed

2) An overview of contributor progress

  • Data repository contributions have grown well; we will focus less on this part of the balance

  • When we looked at journal publishers last year, the contributions were relatively low. Where does this stand today?

  • Can we prioritize gaps?

  • How can we mobilize the publishing community better?

We hope to get joint contributions from STM, Crossref, and publishers

3) A discussion on main end-to-end blockers and next steps

  • With the basic implementations underway, it this the right time to look into broadening the scope?

  • Or should we remain focused on improving the basic article-data infrastructure?

We hope to get contributions from CCDC, and yourself

Target Audience: 

The Scholix article-data linking target audience is broad:

1) Publishers who want to understand better how to leverage and contribute article-data links

2) Data repositories/centers who want to understand better how to leverage and contribute article-data links

3) Consumers of (bulk) data-article links to build services or metrics

4) Graph and link aggregators or hubs; e.g. CrossRef, EBI, Pubmed, DataCite, OpenAire

Group chair serving as contact person: 
Brief introduction describing the activities and scope of the group: 

The Scholarly Link Exchange Working group aims to enable links between scholarly literature and data.  The working group will leverage existing work and international initiatives to work towards a global information commons by establishing:

  • Pathfinder services and enabling infrastructure

  • An interoperability framework with guidelines and standards (see also www.scholix.org)

  • A significant consensus

  • Support for communities of practice and implementation

The working group follows on from the RDA/WDS Publishing Data Services WG, https://rd-alliance.org/groups/rdawds-publishing-data-services-wg.html.  

This WG has been endorsed by the scientific committee of ICSU-WDS

Short Group Status: 

The group is in “maintenance mode”. This may be a deceptive description of the status, as the group has many members who are actively participating in the monthly calls. “maintenance” implies that the current focus of the working group members is on implementation, uptake, and adoption rather than on expanding the Scholix framework itself.

Type of Meeting: 
Informative meeting
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