Open AccessTenzing and the importance of tool development for research efficiency
Author(s) -
Márton Kovács,
Alex O. Holcombe,
Frederik Aust,
Balázs Aczél
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
information services and use
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1875-8789
pISSN - 0167-5265
DOI - 10.3233/isu-210109
Subject(s) - workflow , computer science , data science , scale (ratio) , knowledge management , world wide web , software engineering , process management , database , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
The way science is done is changing. While some tools are facilitating this change, others lag behind. The resulting mismatch between tools and researchers’ workflows can be inefficient and delay the progress of research. As an example, information about the people associated with a published journal article was traditionally handled manually and unsystematically. However, as large-scale collaboration, sometimes referred to as “team science,” is now common, a more structured and easy-to-automate approach to managing meta-data is required. In this paper we describe how the latest version of tenzing (A.O. Holcombe et al., Documenting contributions to scholarly articles using CRediT and tenzing, PLOS One 15(12) (2020)) helps researchers collect and structure contributor information efficiently and without frustration. Using tenzing as an example, we discuss the importance of efficient tools in reforming science and our experience with tool development as researchers.