Sharing Knowledge: Scientific Communication - SSOAR

182 Hans E. Roosendaal, Peter A. Th. M. Geurts
hout Europe and the new opportunities for distance and lifelong learning that
ICT provides.
1 Introduction
Stakeholder-based systems are characterised in their development by the optimising
behaviour of these stakeholders. The scientific information is such a system
and is governed by the following:
“Authors want to publish more, readers want to read less.”
This law states that wide exposure is paramount to the author of scientific information
and that (pre)selection is paramount to its reader. It determines largely
the value chain of scientific information. Any force like the use of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) by the stakeholders involved (authors,
readers, academic libraries, scientific publishers etc.) that allows better fulfilling
this law is an engine for change of the value chain. And this will prompt changes
in the roles of the stakeholders in scientific communication.
1.1 Complex information and empowerment 2
Scientific information is a particular example of a class of information called
complex information. Complex information is essentially information that is integrated
over the entire value chain of a particular process. Complex information
is therefore per definition information of strategic relevance, be it for an entire
industry or business, for an entire enterprise or for any larger organisation, be
this a private or public organisation or even a private-public co-operation. A
good example of such an organisation being dependent on complex information
is an academic institution, or generally a knowledge-intensive organisation.
The information carried in each individual link of the value chain will be of a
different nature, form, norm, standard etc than in another link in the chain. The
intriguing issue then is to integrate the information carried by the various links
in such a way as to create a fully integrated information chain over the entire value
chain.
In such a value chain we can distinguish between generic stakeholders or
main actors and institutional stakeholders or facilitators or intermediaries.
Using this terminology we see that in the value chain for scientific information
the author and the reader are the generic stakeholders and universities, publis-
2 Hans E. Roosendaal, Theo W.C. Huibers, Peter A. Th. M. Geurts and Paul E. van der Vet,
“Changes in the value Chain of Scientific Information: Economic Consequences for Academic
Institutions and their Information Provision”, Online Information Review, accepted
for publication