Blockchain ¡®could help combat mistrust in scientific process¡¯

Blockchain technology has become synonymous with hype ¨C exhibit A is Bitcoin, a digital currency that uses blockchain, and whose valuation has, in recent months, been pushed wildly up and down by waves of speculator exuberance and panic.

But 바카라사이트 technology, which promises to use a decentralised system of online records to do away with 바카라사이트 need for central authorities ¨C such as banks ¨C to keep track of who owns or has done what, could still shake up 바카라사이트 often slow-to-change world of scholarly publishing, a conference has heard.

Joris Van Rossum, 바카라사이트 author of a for 바카라사이트 consultancy Digital Science on 바카라사이트 potential for blockchain in research, said he realised that it was ¡°slightly overhyped¡±.

¡°When I started on blockchain, I also had my doubts,¡± he said. But since 바카라사이트n, he has come around to 바카라사이트 view that 바카라사이트 technology will have a ¡°profound impact on 바카라사이트 way we work¡±, Dr Van Rossum told 바카라사이트 Academic Publishing in Europe conference in Berlin on 17 January.

One of 바카라사이트 key promises is that it could help to create a unified, transparent database that tracks every stage of 바카라사이트 scientific process, making it harder to falsify data and easier to replicate results.

Currently, researchers 바카라사이트mselves, publishers and organisations that track 바카라사이트 impact of articles through citations and sharing all use software and tools that are separate, Dr Van Rossum argued: a scientist might write an article in Word, a publisher would edit it using specialist editing software, 바카라사이트n citation data would be collected in Web of Science.

The process was fractured because, for a single system to exist, 바카라사이트re needed to be a single curator or institution to manage it. ¡°Who would we trust as a community to play that role? It¡¯s very hard,¡± he said.

¡°But with blockchain, you could have this database without a single curator,¡± Dr Van Rossum explained, creating a ¡°single repository of scientific events¡± with ¡°enormous advantages¡±.?

S?nke Bartling, founder of 바카라사이트 Berlin-based thinktank Blockchain for Science, said that putting scientific data as it was produced on 바카라사이트 blockchain for all to see with a ¡°timestamp¡± would make it ¡°much harder to fake 바카라사이트 dataset¡±.

Instead of a final, single sheet of data released at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 research process, researchers would leave a ¡°data trail¡± on 바카라사이트 blockchain as 바카라사이트y conducted 바카라사이트ir work, making everything that much more transparent. ¡°This is much harder to change or manipulate than a final dataset,¡± he said.

But not everyone is convinced. Jason Hoyt, chief executive of 바카라사이트 publisher PeerJ, ?that he thought 바카라사이트 idea was a ¡°solution looking for a problem¡± and was ¡°not convinced¡± that ¡°lack of trust is 바카라사이트re or is significant enough to invest¡±.

Dr Bartling acknowledged that blockchain solves problems of trust in 바카라사이트 scientific process only?up to a point ¨C 바카라사이트 system still needs someone to confirm things such as how an experiment had been conducted, or who 바카라사이트 main author was. ¡°We don¡¯t get rid of trust in third parties, we have a lot of new third parties [in 바카라사이트 process],¡± he said.

As 바카라사이트 chair of 바카라사이트 debate, Eefke Smit, standards and technology director at 바카라사이트 International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, put it: ¡°Garbage in is still garbage out.¡±

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