Article Response for Lecture 9 - Rotenberg & Kushmerick

Rotenberg, E. & Kushmerick, A. (2011). The Author Challenge: Identification of the Self in the Scholarly Literature. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 49(6), 503-520

                This article began as an effective examination of the problems with attribution of scholarly scientific publications, and then submitted a given solution. The first half distinguished attribution as a necessity for allocation of government and grant funding, as well as for tenure decisions for individuals. However, names can be common, and individuals can often have similar names, making attribution tricky. Additionally, scientific scholarly output is increasing at a rapid pace, adding more common names to the jumble. Non-traditional forms of publication, such as web published pieces, and those in three-dimensional models instead of writing, proliferate the scientific landscape.

                Several different international organizations are currently working on name disambiguation, in which authors themselves claim their work. The authors suppose that no one single company can cover all disambiguation in the world, so disambiguation must necessarily be a collaborative effort. The international entities linked to one another, with the authors supporting each entity in a pseudo-folksonomic fashion can create a web of disambiguation. The web particularly discussed was Web of Science and its particular disambiguation community ResearchID.

                Web of Science uses an algorithm to collocate works by a single author. The difficulty mentioned with algorithmic disambiguation within the Web of Science search engine is that it collocates incorrectly whenever authors don’t stick to a strict subject matter, or when authors change names. ResearchID is an attempt to fix this difficulty. The feedback system was mentioned as a critical component to disambiguating correctly, because human users can disambiguate in such cases better than the algorithms, without the added cost in employee searching.

                ResearchID offers identification numbers to each individual author, as well as citation metrics to allow authors to disambiguate themselves. It allows interactive maps of collaborators and citations to analyze an author’s geographic spread of knowledge. In many programs and communities, it has been implemented to help disambiguate authors from inventors and principle investigators. Instead of relying solely on the metadata attached to the article itself, it pulls author data from grant databases and other sources, and allows self-disambiguation

I find it significant that the authors do not see fit to mention NACO, or indeed any LC disambiguation, but only lend credence to disambiguation systems done by authors themselves rather than catalogers. While I agree with their assessment of the value of folksonomy-type disambiguation, I find it disingenuous not to at least mention a divergent way of doing things, and possible criticisms.  The second half of the article seemed more and more like an advertisement for Thomson Reuters projects and products as I continued reading. While the authors seem to believe that further interoperability is the sole goal of future projects, I find it significant that no mention is made of author fraud. I would think that with a folksonomy-type system this would become an issue, or if it is not, is at least worth a mention.