I uploaded a paper yesterday and can no longer find it. It is not available on my page. Although in the edit function I can still find the ‘add a paper’ link, in the non-edit display of my page, there is no longer any reference to papers. As well as this I am listed as having published 4 books instead of 1 book because the info I entered has been repeated 3 times.

Sheila N

may I point you to Mendeley (www.mendeley.com), of which I am the co-founder? Our idea is mainly based on developing research paper management tools, both on the desktop and online. In the long run, we also aim to become a repository, but not based on a departmental taxonomy, but rather a use-based one.

Let me explain: We’re co-founded/funded by some of the people behind Last.fm, the social music service. Last.fm has created an open music database in which artists and songs are linked to each other based on collaborative filtering, i.e. “people who listened to this song also listened to…”. We’d like to do the same for research papers: “People who had this research paper in their libraries also had this one…”.

In our opinion, this use-based taxonomy might be even better than citation-based (or journal-based) taxonomies in uncovering parallels between research streams. We explain these ideas in a bit more detail in a recent IEEE publication: http://escience2008.iu.edu/exhibits/mendeley.shtml (in case you’re interested, I could mail you a longer version).

Best,
Victor

This post may be of interest:

http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2008/social-networking-with-a-brain-a-critical-review-of-academic-sites/

There’s little I like about Academia.edu, and I hope natural selection selects it out. I’m dubious about its repository claims/features: it can do what it likes with OA stuff of course – and as long as it exists it may be a useful dissemination tool like FB, YouTube, Slideshare, etc, etc – but /responsibility/ for management and preservation of valuable material still lies with institutions and other legitimate bodies (archives, libraries, research councils, JISC, etc) – not “these guys” http://www.academia.edu/about

What’s it even doing in .edu? To be in .ac.uk wouldn’t it need to be part of some legitimate, sanctioned JISC/JANet/RC type venture with hopefully some sound backing?

I’ll pass on the views of a senior academic, with which I entirely concur: “the idea that the fundamental taxon is the university department is flawed … it erects artificial barriers that need not exist in this medium, and also rubs one’s nose in the fact that some of the *last* people that one would want to link with are sitting immediately beside you in your institutional hierarchy … [As a repository, it's] a spurious subversion of established tracks toward ‘good practice’.”

Richard