Sci-Mate was a proposal for an open collaboration of scientists using Web 2.0 software to address well known challenges in academic publishing and technology transfer. The site provided free access to a collection of

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...

software applications intended to make it easier for researchers and developers to bring together the necessary knowledge, tools and people for productive research and/or development. A demo version of the site was launched in April 2009, which included software supporting Articles, Discussion, Embedding and Item Exchange. Prior to launch the site was reviewed by ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' and on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's Future Tense program. More recently the site was described in the December 2009 issue of the European Journal of Immunology in the lead up to the 1st Virtual Immunology Conference (VIC 2010). The site's terms and conditions state that it is research, not profit, oriented, and is intended to be owned, controlled and run by its community of research scientist members.

Articles

Articles on sci-mate used Web 2.0 solutions for scientists to put their knowledge initially into open access articles, which can be ultimately published in '

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

' formats. Sci-Mate articles recorded

authorship An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and an automatic claim of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

on behalf of contributors instantly protects the rights of original content. Owners of IP could define their own

licenses A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

, but grant permission for editors to manage content within articles to simplify publication issues. When content was of sufficient standard, an interactive

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

process allowed other scientists to provide quality control prior to submission.

Discussion

Simple Machines Forum Simple Machines Forum (SMF) software is an open-source web application that provides Internet forum and message board services. It is developed by Simple Machines. The name reflects the creator's initial goal of providing a website that could b ...

was integrated into the site to allow researchers to quickly clarify issues or disseminate information that is not intended for publication.

Item Exchange

The Material Transfer Environment (MaTE) is intended to allow researchers to clearly describe any item that might be of interest to other researchers and developers and the conditions of supply. The sort of items described that could be listed on the site include: research tools, such as

antibodies An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...

plasmids A plasmid is a small, extrachromosomal DNA molecule within a cell that is physically separated from chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently. They are most commonly found as small circular, double-stranded DNA molecules in bacteria; how ...

, software, equipment,

cell lines An immortalised cell line is a population of cells from a multicellular organism which would normally not proliferate indefinitely but, due to mutation, have evaded normal cellular senescence and instead can keep undergoing division. The cells ...

animal models A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

, etc.; services, such as

assays An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity of a ...

, consultancies, analysis, customized products, etc.;

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

; items wanted; project proposals; grants and funding opportunities; jobs; training opportunities; conferences; and seminars. As well as allowing suppliers to define conditions up-front through a

material transfer agreement A material transfer agreement (MTA) is a contract that governs the transfer of tangible research materials between two organizations when the recipient intends to use it for his or her own research purposes. The MTA defines the rights of the provide ...

, suppliers can also issue restricted users licenses to avoid unhealthy competition. Once an item is listed, the software should help researchers manage interactions, answer questions, evaluate requests and distribute material. The software provides tools for IP management in the form of records, reports and data-flows to researchers, administrative staff and other controlling interests. This makes it possible for researchers to initiate the commercial distribution of items, although employers can appoint administrators to monitor and take over distribution at any time to ensure the best return for the researcher and other controlling interests.

Embedded

The site allowed for embedded web content, such as software applications or informative video or text content, along with descriptive text. Ratings and reviews help sort content by relevance to researchers.

References

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External links

Official homepage -- explanation
Academic publishing Open content projects Defunct websites Science websites