Jean-Claude Guédon gave the opening address of the workshop. He starts by introducing vocabulary issues that need to be clarified on order to understand the research communications environment. In particular, the difficulty in discerning the difference between ‘quality’ and ‘excellence.’ According to Jean-Claude, quality is a matter of the minimum thresholds that are needed for functionality, a matter of what skills or levels of professionalism are needed to deliver a particular function. The concept of excellence, on the other hand, is a matter of competition, with specifically defined parameters creating the rules of the game in which this competition is played out.
He continues to the topic of scholarly publishing, which has artificially constructed competition as its basis, so that it has become all about creating excellence. Jean-Claude’s advice is to disengage from this situation, by reviewing the notion of what constitutes excellence. He also says we need to look at the whole value chain of scientific communications, as well as the data that underpins research and ensure that it is preserved and made available. He also speaks about the benefits of a collaborative knowledge environment, as well as the need to reposition knowledge and society.
About Jean-Claude Guédon
With a Ph. D. in history of Science and Professor at the University of Montreal, Jean-Claude Guédon must have been among the very first users of the Net in the humanities as he began to explore the Internet ca. 1988. Through his understanding of the power of the Net, he designed and launched an electronic scholarly journal in the humanities in 1991, Surfaces, which was the first e-journal in Canada. More about Jean-Claude ➤
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[...] Jean-Claude Guédon [...]
[...] Jean-Claude Guédon [...]