Knowledge Machines: Digital Transformations of the Sciences and Humanities

by Eric T. Meyer, Ralph Schroeder

Overview

An examination of the ways that digital and networked technologies have fundamentally changed research practices in disciplines from astronomy to literary analysis.

In Knowledge Machines, Eric Meyer and Ralph Schroeder argue that digital technologies have fundamentally changed research practices in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Meyer and Schroeder show that digital tools and data, used collectively and in distributed mode—which they term e-research—have transformed not just the consumption of knowledge but also the production of knowledge. Digital technologies for research are reshaping how knowledge advances in disciplines that range from physics to literary analysis.

Meyer and Schroeder map the rise of digital research and offer case studies from many fields, including biomedicine, social science uses of the Web, astronomy, and large-scale textual analysis in the humanities. They consider such topics as the challenges of sharing research data and of big data approaches, disciplinary differences and new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration, the shifting boundaries between researchers and their publics, and the ways that digital tools promote openness in science.

This book considers the transformations of research from a number of perspectives, drawing especially on the sociology of science and technology and social informatics. It shows that the use of digital tools and data is not just a technical issue; it affects research practices, collaboration models, publishing choices, and even the kinds of research and research questions scholars choose to pursue. Knowledge Machines examines the nature and implications of these transformations for scholarly research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262328197
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	04/17/2015
Series:	Infrastructures
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Eric T. Meyer is Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford.

Ralph Schroeder is Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Illustrations xi
1 A Digital Research Revolution? 1
2 Conceptualizing e-Research 23
3 The Rise of Digital Research 45
4 Aggregating People and Machines: Collaborative Computation 69
5 Distributed Data 95
6 Digital Research across the Disciplines: The Sciences and Social Sciences 125
7 Digital Research across the Disciplines: Humanities and Access to Knowledge 147
8 Open Science 175
9 Limits of e-Research 187
10 Knowledge Machines 197
Notes 225
References 237
Index 263

What People are Saying About This

Edward J. Hackett

We are in the midst of a profound transformation in knowledge: not only its production, distribution, and use, but also its constitution and meaning. Knowledge Machines is an authoritative and insightful guide to this transformation, describing, analyzing, and speculating from a sound base of empirical work and social theory. Aware that they are writing in the midst of the maelstrom of change, the authors are careful to indicate alternative pathways, contingent possibilities, and tentative inferences. These give the reader a reasoned sense of where matters stand today, while providing ideas and evidence for thinking about the various courses events may take in the future. In all, Knowledge Machines is a smart and lucid book that lends insight into the defining transformation of our day.

Mike Thelwall

Knowledge Machines draws upon a range of social theories of research and a set of key case studies in order to give a clear understanding of the ongoing transformations of research practices through Internet technologies. Its nuanced analysis of the differences between e-research projects and their overall commonalities is essential reading for those interested in e-research and big data.

Endorsement

We are in the midst of a profound transformation in knowledge: not only its production, distribution, and use, but also its constitution and meaning. Knowledge Machines is an authoritative and insightful guide to this transformation, describing, analyzing, and speculating from a sound base of empirical work and social theory. Aware that they are writing in the midst of the maelstrom of change, the authors are careful to indicate alternative pathways, contingent possibilities, and tentative inferences. These give the reader a reasoned sense of where matters stand today, while providing ideas and evidence for thinking about the various courses events may take in the future. In all, Knowledge Machines is a smart and lucid book that lends insight into the defining transformation of our day.

—Edward J. Hackett, Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, and editor of Science, Technology & Human Values

From the Publisher

Knowledge Machines draws upon a range of social theories of research and a set of key case studies in order to give a clear understanding of the ongoing transformations of research practices through Internet technologies. Its nuanced analysis of the differences between e-research projects and their overall commonalities is essential reading for those interested in e-research and big data.

—Mike Thelwall, Professor of Information Science, University of Wolverhampton

Knowledge Machines gives a rich empirical account of the implications of the Internet for academic research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Like its sister publication *Virtual Knowledge: Experimenting in the Humanities and the Social Sciences*, it documents current practices in e-research and points the way forward to fundamentally novel ways of creating knowledge. This book is a formidable performance of the Oxford Internet Institute.

—Paul Wouters, Leiden University, coeditor of Virtual Knowledge

We are in the midst of a profound transformation in knowledge: not only its production, distribution, and use, but also its constitution and meaning. Knowledge Machines is an authoritative and insightful guide to this transformation, describing, analyzing, and speculating from a sound base of empirical work and social theory. Aware that they are writing in the midst of the maelstrom of change, the authors are careful to indicate alternative pathways, contingent possibilities, and tentative inferences. These give the reader a reasoned sense of where matters stand today, while providing ideas and evidence for thinking about the various courses events may take in the future. In all, Knowledge Machines is a smart and lucid book that lends insight into the defining transformation of our day.

—Edward J. Hackett, Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, and editor of Science, Technology & Human Values

Paul Wouters

Knowledge Machines gives a rich empirical account of the implications of the Internet for academic research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Like its sister publication *Virtual Knowledge: Experimenting in the Humanities and the Social Sciences*, it documents current practices in e-research and points the way forward to fundamentally novel ways of creating knowledge. This book is a formidable performance of the Oxford Internet Institute.