Remembering Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley

I first knew Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley through his writings on the Useful Chemistry Blog; he wrote quite a bit about Open Notebook Science.  In fact, he coined the phrase.  I particularly remember reading a blog post concerning errors in the publishing of chemistry data.  He wrote a post on "Dangerous Data: Lessons from my Cheminfo Retrieval Class."  I used that blog post to help teach LIS students that a reference librarian needs to recommend that patrons use multiple sources to confirm reference data.  One can't trust any single source of information. 

I was able to invite Jean-Claude to speak at a session of the 2011 SLA Conference in Philadelphia.  He did a great job talking about errors in the chemical literature and his efforts in correcting those errors.

Jean-Claude was a strong advocate for the open exchange of scientific information (particularly the data from research notebooks), and he really helped advance the cause for open access and open data.  Text from the last slide of one of his 2011 SLA presentations is a good way to close.

For science to progress quickly there is great benefit in moving away from a “trusted source” model to one based on transparency and data provenance.  Open Notebook Science offers an efficient way to make research transparent and discoverable. 

Dr. Bradley, we will miss you.

Encouraging more discussion about open science #rwa

I posed this question to people in an internal Elsevier forum. I wonder what kinds of responses I will get?

Concerning the recent Elsevier boycott from a number of scientists, a representative from Elsevier Science noted that they "need to do a better job of communicating" with their readers, subscribers, authors, librarians and other interested parties.

Michael Nielsen, author of Reinventing Discovery [Note, I will finish the book tonight], recently said that "we need positive actions as well, not just an agreement about what not to do! But what’s good about the boycott is that it has engaged lots of new people in serious discussion about better ways of doing and communicating science, and some of those people are taking action. That’s exactly what’s needed for open science to thrive." Open Science is coming. When Elsevier supports legislation like the RWA, that is not going to endear many researchers. My question is, what do you recommend Elsevier read to understand the cultural shift that is happening in open science?