Different views on Digital Scholarship: separate worlds or cohesive research field?

Raffaghelli, Juliana Elisa; Cucchiara, Stefania; Manganello, Flavio; Persico, Donatella

doi:10.3402/rlt.v24.32036

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Finally, further studies could address limitations regarding current methodological approaches and complementing descriptive methods. Use of cross-citation bibliometric maps might, for instance, provide evidence of interdisciplinary cohesion or lack of cohesion of research, as was proved in similar studies (Raffaghelli et al 2016). Further research might benefit from a mixed method approach to highlight research contributions from separate academic fields.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

ResearchGate and Academia.edu as networked socio-technical systems for scholarly communication: a literature review

Manca

2018

Research in Learning Technology

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ResearchGate and Academia.edu have been increasingly acknowledged as the most popular academic social network sites (ASNS) for scholarly communication. Along with their benefits for supporting communication and knowledge sharing within academic communities, concerns over quality and credibility remain a pertinent issue. In terms of research investigation, ASNS have attracted strong attention for new scholarly practice and their potential for building, maintaining and enhancing reputation. However, a thorough understanding is still lacking of how these sites operate as networked socio-technical systems reshaping scholarly practices and academic identity. This article analyses 39 empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals with a specific focus on ResearchGate and Academia.edu. The aim is to describe the status of the research and to identify gaps and priorities in the areas of scholarly networked learning and shared knowledge. Results show that the number of studies focusing on ResearchGate was more than double those dedicated to Academia.edu. While both sites have attracted attention in the library and information sciences as deployments for reputation building and alternative ranking systems, such as ResearchGate metrics, there is a dearth of research investigating practices and new modes of communication in the light of a networked participatory approach to scholarship. Most of the studies analysed focused on the general uptake or impact assessment of alternative metrics, while very few investigated individual and collective scholarly practices. This study points to the need for specific research on open and distributed learning achieved in ASNS according to a networked learning perspective.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

ResearchGate and Academia.edu as networked socio-technical systems for scholarly communication: a literature review

Manca

2018

Research in Learning Technology

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“…The authors have also contended the fragmentation of studies relating to digital scholarship, with diversified disciplinary perspectives [38]. At least two theoretical approaches have recently emerged, with the aim of conceptualizing the relationship between scholarly practice and technology, as well as new forms of scholarship fostered by social media.…”

Section: Social Media and Networked Scholarship: How Scholars Share Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Is There a Social Life in Open Data? The Case of Open Data Practices in Educational Technology Research

Raffaghelli

Manca

2019

Publications

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In the landscape of Open Science, Open Data (OD) plays a crucial role as data are one of the most basic components of research, despite their diverse formats across scientific disciplines. Opening up data is a recent concern for policy makers and researchers, as the basis for good Open Science practices. The common factor underlying these new practices—the relevance of promoting Open Data circulation and reuse—is mostly a social form of knowledge sharing and construction. However, while data sharing is being strongly promoted by policy making and is becoming a frequent practice in some disciplinary fields, Open Data sharing is much less developed in Social Sciences and in educational research. In this study, practices of OD publication and sharing in the field of Educational Technology are explored. The aim is to investigate Open Data sharing in a selection of Open Data repositories, as well as in the academic social network site ResearchGate. The 23 Open Datasets selected across five OD platforms were analysed in terms of (a) the metrics offered by the platforms and the affordances for social activity; (b) the type of OD published; (c) the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) data principles compliance; and (d) the extent of presence and related social activity on ResearchGate. The results show a very low social activity in the platforms and very few correspondences in ResearchGate that highlight a limited social life surrounding Open Datasets. Future research perspectives as well as limitations of the study are interpreted in the discussion.

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“…As Raffaghelli, Cucchiara, Manganello, and Persico (2015) pointed out, a close look to studies analysing digital scholarship shows that most of them are based on observational approaches that explore and observe existing practices, reporting objective data or phenomenological or narrative accounts on what it is. Moreover, most studies build on more or less acknowledged values on scholarship (towards more open and digitalized practices) but they just show a current picture and eventually point out the criticalities and conflicts of trying to be a digital scholar in the middle of traditional systems.…”

Section: Discussion: the Missed Dialogue Between Digital Scholarship mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first one regards the highly cited work of Boyer, which has been extensively adopted as model of scholarship. Almost all consulted studies in the field of educational technologies elaborate on Boyer's model, starting from Weller's work (2011); a good number of papers from the information science area take into consideration this author (Raffaghelli et al, 2016). Another author that we should recognize as "boundary crossing" is surely Borgman (2007) whose influencial work (mentioned above) has introduced the problem of digital scholarship for information sciences but also acknowledged the socio-technical studies as another perspective explaining the creative relationship between scholars and cyerinfrastructures.…”

Section: Methodological Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The answer is provided through the overview of the literature and aims at understanding how digital scholarship has evolved as topic of research, and to observe if (as we assumed) this evolution has been fragmentary. We will build on the work of Raffaghelli et al (2016), that identified three main disciplinary perspectives of research on digital scholarship: Information Sciences and cyberinfrastructures, Digital Humanities, and Professional networked learning. We will analyse these three perspectives, from their conceptual foundations to the current trends of research to see whether there is a fragmentary composition.…”

Section: Methodological Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the (missed) connections between digital scholarship and faculty development: a conceptual analysis

Raffaghelli

2017

Int J Educ Technol High Educ

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The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between two research topics: digital scholarship and faculty development. The former topic drives attention on academics' new practices in digital, open and networked contexts; the second is focused on the requirements and strategies to promote academics' professional learning and career advancement. The research question addressing this study is: are faculty development strategies hindered by the lack of a cohesive view in the research on digital scholarship? The main assumption guiding this research question is that clear conceptual frameworks and models of professional practice lead to effective faculty development strategies. Through a wide overview of the evolution of both digital scholarship and faculty development, followed by a conceptual analysis of the intersections between fields, the paper attempts to show the extent on which the situation in one area (digital scholarship) might encompass criticalities for the other (faculty development) in terms of research and practices. Furthermore, three scenarios based on the several perspectives of digital scholarship are built in order to explore the research question in depth. We conclude that at the current state of art the relationship between these two topics is weak. Moreover, the dialogue between digital scholarship and faculty development could put the basis to forge effective professional learning contexts and instruments, with the ultimate goal of supporting academics to become digital scholars towards a more open and democratic vision of scholarship.

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Different views on Digital Scholarship: separate worlds or cohesive research field?

Cited by 13 publications

References 34 publications

ResearchGate and Academia.edu as networked socio-technical systems for scholarly communication: a literature review

ResearchGate and Academia.edu as networked socio-technical systems for scholarly communication: a literature review

Is There a Social Life in Open Data? The Case of Open Data Practices in Educational Technology Research

Exploring the (missed) connections between digital scholarship and faculty development: a conceptual analysis

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