Social networking extensions for SAS-Space

Thanks to our good friends at ULCC, we have now added the SNEEP suite of social networking extensions to SAS-Space, which can be found at the foot of each item’s page. See it in action here.


Users can now do three new things:

Comments. Once users have created a user account for themselves (easily done), they can then make comments on items in the repository. These are publicly visible, along with the comments of others, and shown as in a forum thread.

Tag. Alongside formal Keywords (from authors and SAS-Space staff), users can add tags of particular relevance for them, and view those of others.



All of these tags together form a ‘folksonomy’, a user-generated way of describing the content, and which can be used as another way of browsing for similar material. A click on a tag reveals a list of other items with the same tag.

Notes. Alongside the public Comments and Tags, users can make notes for their own use, which are private to them.

This is an important part of the Open Journals project, as the next step is to see how we might go about integrating this socially generated material in SAS-Space with the journal interface in OJS.

Making the move from print to web

One of the outputs of this project is a case study, documenting the sorts of issues that are likely to recur when journal editors are thinking about making the transition from print to web. This week I am listening to and reflecting on my recording of an excellent meeting with the Amicus Curiae team; the first of two meetings, part of the preparation for that case study.

Discussion was frank and free, and, not surprisingly, took in the central issue of what the relationship should be between the printed edition, which goes to subscribers, and the later electronic edition, which will be free. How long should the gap be, and how central is the journal to the package that subscribers receive ?

We also discussed some very interesting issues about the relationship of print and web editions in relation to the content itself: might articles in the online edition be longer, and/or be supported by appendices ? What about online-only content ?

All these issues will be addressed in the case study document, which should be available in early September.