Science 2.0

Science 2.0 or Research 2.0 is a new level of connectivity between researchers using the internet to share scientific material. It relies heavily upon Web 2.0 software tools and principles as a way to foster greater cooperation and collaboration between scientists. It has the potential to: speed up the process of scientific discovery; overcome problems associated with academic publishing and peer review; and remove time and cost barriers limiting the commercialization of scientific technology. In a nutshell, Science 2.0 is how to do science today: fast and effective. Here we have links to a selection of those modern online tools that will help, specially new scientists, to be more productive in the internet era.

Collaboration and Connections

• • Mendeley is a desktop and web program for managing and sharing research papers, discovering research data and collaborating online.

  • CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references.

  • Twitter offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets; and yes, you can use twitter for science.

Online Lab Notebook

• • OpenWetWare is an effort to promote the sharing of information, know-how, and wisdom among researchers and groups who are working in biology & biological engineering.

Presentations

• • SlideShare is an online tool to share presentations, documents and professional videos.

  • Prezi is a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides (you can make your audience dizzy with this).

Writing

• • Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users (this is an all-in-one).

  • EtherPad 3.0 is a collaborative and interactive word processor.

  • ScribTeX is an online LaTeX document creation platform (basic usage is free).

  • MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers.

  • CodeCogs is an Open-Source library, with technical references and numerical components to create online calculators, edit mathematical formulas, or display Excel equations, among other applications.

  • Doxygen is a documentation system for C++, C, Java, Objective-C, Python, IDL (Corba and Microsoft flavors), Fortran, VHDL, PHP, C#, and to some extent D.

Data Sharing and Backup

• • Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.

  • GETT lets you share any number of files, no matter how large, within second (download can be done while still uploading).

  • Science 3.0 combines the hypothesis based inquiry of laboratory science with the methods of social science research to understand and improve the use of new human networks made possible by today’s digital connectivity.