Projects delve into enhanced publication

Six projects financed by SURFfoundation have been giving researchers insight into enhancing publications.

The projects, which looked at enhanced publication in five disciplines (economics, linguistics, musicology, communication sciences, and geosciences) concluded that this approach has enormous potential. However, the projects revealed that there is still much to be learned about how to enhance publications and how to make use of the semantic web. The various tools that have been developed for this new way of publishing research results are not yet ‘ready for immediate use’ by researchers. Enhancement still involves collaboration between researchers and ICT staff, and ICT staff are still required to help researchers navigate the technical possibilities offered by the semantic web, xml and rdf (rich data format).
 
Nick Jankowski of the eHumanities Group at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is enthusiastic about the possibilities opened up by enhanced publications: ‘They provide the opportunity for new insights, new knowledge, and for sharing the knowledge with other scholars and a wider public.’