Online Format#
Introduction
During my PhD, I spent quite a fair bit of time to think about novel methodology to publish research.
Those online book are:
lifelong notes related to the topic of planet formation and amorphous ice
an intermediate step towards the production of my Master Thesis.
Plan
How
Tools
Workflow
Daily Notes Implementation
Supervision
Publication
Peer Review
Why
Open Toolbox
Alternative Publication
Enhanced Science Communication
Create a Dialogue
Greater Impact
-
A Bit of Context
The Open University
My PhD
PhD Thesis Requirement
Multiple Outputs
As a result, the outputs of my scientific journey extend far beyond the restrictive scope of a thesis
How ?#
with Markdown
And very few lines of code
The first thing I hear when I tell people that I am writing a website is: Oh that must be difficult. It is actually easy and rely on two tools, both developped by the Executable Books organization. They both gives the opportunity to build a static website from a collection of markdown files.
‣ Tools #
Jupyter Book
A command-line interface for building beautiful, publication-quality books and documents from computational content.
Myst Markdown
An extensible, semantic, and community-driven flavor of markdown designed for scientific and computational narratives.
The Mindset
Good values inherited from the Open Science community
Open
Transparent
Kind
Interactif
Creatif
Inclusif
Collaboratif
‣ Workflow #
‣ ‣ Daily Notes Implementation #
The scientific method is well established since the 17th century, and every step rely on carefull notes to document the process. Very little progress (nor investigations or effort) have been made in note taking capabilities to reflect the recent technological advancement of our society and enhance scientific notes. I believe my online note taking routine is a great improvement (with respect to hand written notes) and it gives me multiple benefits (cf card right)
‣ ‣ Supervision #
It is not trivial to get the best out of your supervisory team. The Open University pay a third party company for a PGR Manager, but like any tool designed for all, it is nowhere near fitting everyone need. Everybody should be given the chance to developp his/her own tools. Click on the card to know more (cf right)
Interaction Post-it #
Note / Question
Sometimes, for the purpose of interactivity, I will ask you some questions, feel free to comment your answers 😉
Warning
I would ❤ you to comment every word of this website. But please be mindfull of the ✏ pages that are formal thesis pages.
Info / Idea
Info and Ideas
See also
The best advantage of a web-site is that you can link to various other pages or documents, so go check those out!
‣ ‣ Publication #
More info
More info
Multiple ways to publish, all complementary
Differences between notes and thesis#
Sesction per section
Explanation, difference between the 2 format
More inputs: video, podcast (link with litterature below (Bourne))
Fig. 14 Explanation#
‣ ‣ Peer Review#
I am using
Hypothesisas a Peer Review tool. Just higlight any word, sentense or paragraph of this website and you will see apeearing two buttons as shown in the image. If you click on the annotate button, you will be able to write your comment directly on the web-page.
in Summary
Proof of concept that science can be self-published and delivered online as a Research compendium
Why ?#
Open Toolbox
For PhD Students and Researchers interested in Open Science
Publishing my research online has proven extremely challenging and I had to learn many skills along the way (hopefully the developper community is incredibely open but the information is scattered all over the internet). While learning and implementing the solutions I found, I took time to developpe some tutorials to help like minded scientist to follow my path.
Open Science
Anaconda
Online Books
Github
Binder
Semantic Web
And many more, all together opening the doors for ...
Alternative publication
We all know scientific publication needs to change!
Scientific communication today is designed around print documents and pay-walled access to content. Over the last decade, the open-science movement has accelerated the use of pre-print services and data archives that are vastly improving the accessibility of scientific content. However, these systems are not designed for communicating modern scientific outputs, which encompasses so much more than a paper-centric model of the scholarly literature.
So why not experiment ?
Papers
Explain
There is two main ways in which scientists share their work:
Presentations
Explain
‣ Differences #
PhD Deliverables
Fig. 15 Source#
Granularity
self-own /
lifelong
Is it better ? I don't know but it is a good starting point to explore how we can change the publication landscape
‣ Create a dialogue …#
I aim to deliver the scientific knowledge that I produced using a conversational tone. I think it can help attracting a much wider audience without doing any harm to the scientific content itself. A website offer a limitless set of tools to achieve that goal.
‣ ‣ … with the full spectrum of audiences#
This web-site is an experiment aimed at communicating research . Communication involve an audience, and there is a whole diapora of possible audiences for this project: In order to communicate, I will leave notes (4 types, cf below) here and there, sometimes with a tag refering to the audience they are adressed to.
Legend 
Supervision team
Researchers (my field)
Friends/Colleagues
Anyone
Teachers
Researchers (other fields)
‣ ‣ And the help of #
School 2.A#
Other Researchers#
» Greater Impact
Can I ?#
Actually submit an Online Thesis
» A bit of context #
The Open University#
The Open University (OU) is a values-led institution which seeks to be “Open to people, places, methods and ideas”. It also says to champions openly shared, engaged research of all kinds alongside its world-leading approach to online teaching (Source).
Note
insert card toward OU web-site with logo …
My PhD#
PhD Journey (in a nutshell)
Explanation
Explanation
Explanation
Explanation
» PhD Thesis requirements #
Documents: Research Degree Regulations - OU
A PhD, MPhil or Professional Doctorate OU dissertation is normally a monograph, that is, a single, coherent narrative that articulates the thesis and the evidence that supports it. Any additional elements (e.g., non-book components) must be properly integrated into the narrative to provide a coherent and comprehensive whole. The dissertation must satisfy OU standards of presentation and the QAA research degree characteristics (Appendix 1 of the Research Degree Regulations)
—Thesis Submission Guidelines, Research Degrees, The Open University
Requirements
Search for, discover, access, retrieve, sift, interpret, analyse, evaluate, manage, conserve and communicate an ever-increasing volume of knowledge from a range of sources.
Think critically about problems to produce innovative solutions and create new knowledge
Plan, manage and deliver projects, selecting and justifying appropriate methodological processes while recognising, evaluating and minimising the risks involved and impact on the environment
Exercise professional standards in research and research integrity, and engage in professional practice, including ethical, legal, and health and safety aspects, bringing enthusiasm, perseverance and integrity to bear on their work activities
Support, collaborate with and lead colleagues, using a range of teaching, communication and networking skills to influence practice and policy in diverse environments
Appreciate the need to engage in research with impact and to be able to communicate it to diverse audiences, including the public
Build relationships with peers, senior colleagues, students and stakeholders with sensitivity to equality, diversity and cultural issues
Book / Non-Book Component
I have not found any precision about what is meant by book in the Research Degree Regulations, hence I went to look for a definition in the Oxford dictionary where it is said that:
A book is a written work published in printed or electronic form
It is stipulated that a non-book component can be included. As a result I think I should be allowed to publish a thesis that is 100% online
Physical copie
You will need to submit an electronic copy of your thesis at submission. The electronic copy should be submitted in PDF format to the Research Degrees Team through PGR Manager
—Thesis Submission Guidelines, Research Degrees, The Open University
It is stipulated in the regulation that a pdf copy has to be submitted. This is the only sentence that is preventing me to submit my thesis as a web-site … It doesn’t look like much, considering all the > benefits that could arise from such a way to publish, and yet I have been told this is incredibely complicated to change. This is how far we are from progress.
Personal reflexion on the inefficiency and detrimental effect of heavy administration
Pay Gap
Topic 2
What is next ?#
Comments
Notes
Page
Author: Vincent Deguin;
Status:
🔎Reviewed: ❌
Updated: 28/05/2023
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