Planning future development of topic groups within the Cooperative

[Peter Matthews]

The Research Cooperative is focused not on research itself but is concerned with participation in the communication of research in general, for any kind of audience.

It is important for researchers, science writers, and other non-fiction writers to think about how they intend to publish and otherwise use their work, before beginning. With this in mind, it might also be appropriate for us to encourage discussions of initial plans, new projects, and possible projects. This might help researchers and other writers can get early feedback on possible ways to communicate their work, and also feedback on possible help from editors, translators and publishers.

Here is a shortlist of possible areas and topic categories for future development:

Participants in research
Students/public research/private research/independents/NGOs and NPOs/communities/partnerships.

Participants in communication
Students, writers/editors and proofreaders/translators/illustrators/publishers/others (e.g. indexing)/communities/partnerships.

Communication plans (integration)
Project proposals (general or specific, by individuals or organisations)/identifying relevant audiences/ identifying suitable media/partnerships (for research and for communication)/project migration/project reports.

Project reports would be useful as feedback from past or current project organisers who have found help at the Research Cooperative. "Agents" in our forums could be people who help to integrate the kinds of help needed to carry out a communication project.

Our site can only support initial discussions of projects, and can work alongside existing projects, as a meeting place. Each project should develop it's main venue in some other place.

We should not attempt to be a venue for specialist research, since there are many existing and better-supported venues for all kinds of specialist research. To create groups for particular research topics is tempting, but redundant.

Our niche and potential strength is in helping people to think concretely about the communication of research, in relation to the aims of the research concerned.

Once it is clear what kind of communication is needed, it should be possible to go the forums, and seek the help and expertise needed.

Here is one hypothetical example:

An independent researcher might be working with a particular community to support the community, in return for support for his or her own work as a researcher. This might take the form of a contract between the researcher and the community, in which information and financial resources are shared. In such a situation, the researcher may be independent in terms of academic affiliation, but dependent in terms of his or her involvement with a community.

In this example,both the researcher and the community may have interests in how and where the research is reported. In this situation, there is a danger that the research communication will be biased towards the perceived interests of the community - just as can happen when private research is sponsored by a commercial corporation. Independent outside review can be helpful for all parties, and part of the project might involve seeking reviewers from among members of the Research Cooperative.

In this example also, the researcher may wish to publish both academic articles and also community information (e.g. product descriptions) on behalf of the community.

When product descriptions (e.g. the history and technical details of a particular product) are based on research, then it might also be appropriate to seek help, if needed, from other members of the Research Cooperative.

Perhaps someone would like to establish an International Journal of Local Product Research, to accommodate product descriptions that go beyond the limited information normally provided on commercial product labels.

In any case, we have started a Topics page - please visit and see where this discussion has taken us.