Tools and Platforms

Objective of the SIG

The Special Interest Group (SIG) “Tools and Platforms” works on emerging practices and needs concerning open scholarly communication tools and services. It focuses on the tools enabling the main publishing activities, like writing, peer-reviewing and disseminating; it also entails, more broadly, activities related to scholarly communication, like annotating or translating. Formerly named SIG “Tools and R&D”, the SIG still has a strong interest in tracking useful and cutting-edge innovations in the publishing area.

The main objectives of the SIG are to provide guidance in front of a complex and evolving context, and to examine how the tools and platforms development could actually benefit the open scholarly communication community in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).

In that prospect, the SIG conducted through its White Paper a technical watch, listing the main tools and platforms that could be used for open scholarly communication, and identifying the more important trends in this area. Although focused on open source technologies and the specific needs of the SSH disciplines, the White Paper also analyzed some proprietary or cross-domain tools. 

The White Paper also provided a provisional list of criteria that a user could rely upon in order to select the most appropriate tool for its purpose. Indeed, the SIG considered that the tools could not be compared only from a technical and abstract perspective, but that the choice of a tool also highly depended on various contextual factors (skill set, local infrastructures, etc.).

With all these aspects in mind, the SIG intends to work especially on the establishment of an analytical tools catalog, information cards, and orientation tools based on main potential workflows. More globally, these work areas could be refined or evolve through collaboration with other SIGs or initiatives. Interoperability aspects should connect the SIG “Tools and Platforms” with the SIG “Common Standards and FAIR Principles”; translation management aspects should be connected with the works of the SIG “Multilingualism”. Beyond OPERAS, some fruitful collaborations could be envisioned with teams already engaged in the creation of catalogs for scholarly communication tools.

A brief history

2017-2019: In the original OPERAS governance, there were Working Groups (WG). The OPERAS WG on Tools R&D produced a first version of its White Paper (WP1) on July 2018.

2019-2021: In 2019, the WG became a Special Interest Group (SIG). Its topic didn’t change, but the group welcomed entirely new members. This group of approximately 10 persons produced a major update of the White Paper (WP2) in June 2021.

2022-…: In 2022, the SIG changed its title from “Tools and R&D” to “Tools and Platforms” in order to be more consistent with the general organization of the SIGs. It also corresponds to an aspect mentioned in the SIG’s White Paper 2, as tools can often be integrated as a service in a platform.

Outcomes

White Papers

Tools White Paper, version 2018
Tools White Paper, version 2021

Other

11th March, 2022: webinar organised by Medici Network (french network for editors). Arnaud Gingold presented OPERAS and the SIG Tools, in particular our SIG and the WP2. The presentation was in French (Title: Des outils pour la communication scientifique ouverte en sciences humaines et sociales : Présentation du Livre blanc élaboré par le Special Interest Group “Tools Research and Development” d’OPERAS). The slideshow is available here and the video will be accessible soon here.

Contact point

Arnaud Gingold <arnaud.gingold@openedition.org> and Céline Barthonnat <celine.barthonnat@ccsd.cnrs.fr>, SIG’s coordinators.

Special Interest Group members

  • Céline Barthonnat, Publishing Officer Episciences, Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD, CNRS/Inria/INRAE), coordinator of Medici Network, France, coordinator of the Special Interest Group
  • Arnaud Gingold, FAIR Data officer, OPERAS – CO-OPERAS, coordinator of the Special Interest Group
  • Aleš Pogačnik, Editor-in-chief and Head of Založba ZRC, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), Slovenia
  • Antoine Cordelois, PARIS IAS/RFIEA
  • Bernard Pochet, Publisher, Lecturer and Librarian, Liège University, Belgium
  • Cecilia Bruno, Lexis, Italy
  • Luca De Santis, Director of Research and Development, Net7 srl, Italy
  • Maddalena Briganti, Lexis, Italy
  • Mark Huskisson, Public Knowledge Project (PKP), Co-chair of OPERAS Assembly of the Commons
  • Peter Daengeli, Tool developer (digital editions), Digital Humanities dept., University of Bern
  • Rupert Gatti, Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge. Co-Founder of Open Book Publishers
  • Sven Fund, Senior Director, Knowledge Unlatched

Former members

2019-2021

Coordinators:

  • Céline Barthonnat, CNRS, Medici
  • Arnaud Gingold, OpenEdition
  • François-Xavier Mas, Université Paris 13, Medici

Participants:

  • Lorenzo Armando, Lexis
  • Emilie Blotière, CNRS
  • Maddalena Briganti, Lexis
  • Luca De Santis, Net7
  • James MacGregor, PKP
  • Alessandro Pierno, Univ. Firenze
  • Bernard Pochet, Liège University Library
  • Aleš Pogačnik, ZRC SAZU
  • Riccardo Pozzo, Università di Roma Tor Vergata
  • Nikola Stanić, CEON/CEES
  • Agnieszka Szulińska, IBL-PAN

2017-2019

Coordinators :

  • Patrick Gendre, OpenEdition
  • Arnaud Gingold, OpenEdition

Participants:

  • Heather Staines, Hypothesis
  • Maciej Maryl, Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN)
  • Ghislain Sillaume, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH)
  • Sofie Wennström, Stockholm University Press
  • Tom Mowlam, Ubiquity Press
  • Elena Giglia, University of Turin (UniTo)
  • Francesca di Donato, Associazione Italiana Scienza Aperta (AISA)