The typical researcher collaborates mostly with their local colleagues e.g., professors and graduate students at their university. Only in rare cases does the list expand to include other researchers they may have encountered at meetings perhaps. Studies (e.g., Lee and Bozeman, 2005) show that researchers who initiate collaborations outside their institutions publish more, and greater quality articles than their colleagues who do not.
I've found
www.MyNetResearch.com to be a really interesting example of the new research collaboration. MyNetResearch is relatively new, but extremely powerful. I use it to find collaborators from all over the world using very precise searches for research interests and invite them to work on papers with me. I manage my papers online, with version control (which is really cool, no competing versions!)
While basic membership of MyNetResearch is free, it also has a whole bunch of power research tools (with its Institutional membership) that amaze. For example I can:
(a) Create and launch online surveys
(b) Complete citation searches
(c) Create bibliographies in several styles
(d) Use an expert system for experimental design and statistical method selection
Using forums and blogs and articles, I'm able to share information and learn from others. One particularly cool feature of MyNetResearch is RSS feeds from every available knowledge specialization. Sometimes, I will just browse to keep in touch with developments in different fields.
I have heard that MyNetResearch is giving universities 12 months free Trial membership, which, for all the tools above, is a great deal!!
Apparently there are already thousands of members of the website, with many universities signing up. I wonder if anyone else has any experience of
www.MyNetResearch.com they'd be willing to share.
Academic Life
