{"id":3048,"date":"2018-08-07T14:25:36","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T17:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/?p=3048"},"modified":"2018-08-07T14:28:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T17:28:18","slug":"books-relevance-in-scholarly-communication-the-case-of-scielo-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/2018\/08\/07\/books-relevance-in-scholarly-communication-the-case-of-scielo-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Books\u2019 relevance in scholarly communication \u2013 The case of SciELO Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ernesto Spinak<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n
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Photo: SciELO.<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

The SciELO Program celebrates 20 years of activity in full process of alignment with the advances of Open Science. For this reason, on September 24th and 25th, eight specialized working groups (WG) have been organized. WG8 will analyze one of the classic types of scientific literature \u2013 the academic book<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As stated in the presentation of WG8, “Although present in all areas of knowledge, its relevance in research communication is highlighted with more emphasis in the areas of social sciences, literature, and arts. [\u2026] The scope of this working group is to analyze the relevance of the academic book in research communication, the current state and trends of online publication and indexing of academic books in the SciELO Network countries and the challenges for adopting standards that maximize their visibility, use and impact”1<\/sup>. The following reflections are published with the objective of promoting an open debate among all participants and readers of SciELO in Perspective<\/em> and encouraging them to contribute with their opinions. At the end of this post, there will be instructions on how to participate.<\/p>\n

The WG8 starts with a supporting selected bibliography2<\/sup>, which served as the basis for writing this post.<\/p>\n

A brief history of the academic book<\/h3>\n

In ancient times, scientific ideas were gathered in manuscripts which were then compiled as books by philosophers such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid, Galen, and many others.<\/p>\n

These manuscripts, through Arab civilization, were preserved and transmitted until they reappeared in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, when the first universities were created: University of Bologna, Italy (1088), University of Oxford, UK (1096), University of Salamanca, Spain (1218), University of Padua, Italy (1222), and a long etcetera.<\/p>\n

The proliferation of university courses created a demand for books, and by the middle of the fifteenth century, thanks to the invention of movable types by Gutenberg, the book production system was transformed, facilitating scholarly communication in durable and economical media. As a consequence of this new technology, the process of storing, disseminating and retrieving information was revolutionized.<\/p>\n

From ancient Greeks to the Renaissance, books were the primary means of preserving and disseminating science. It has also been a constant that, throughout history, new technologies have always contributed to expand the access to information, responding to new needs and opening new paths.<\/p>\n

By the middle of the seventeenth century, epistolary exchange became the most widely used mechanism for communicating peer-to-peer research results, as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and many others used this medium. It was then that incipient scientific societies, such as the Royal Society of London, began to sponsor this medium of information exchange and to announce discoveries. The formalization of these correspondence procedures resulted in the birth of the first two scientific journals in the world: the Journal des S\u00e7avans<\/em> (Paris), in January 1665, and three months later, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.<\/p>\n

These journals, followed by many others later on, constructed the memory of science and the dissemination of results. They were appropriate communication tools because they fulfilled the following functions:<\/p>\n