'SciVee' Aims to Bring Science to the YouTube Generation

With the goal of encouraging greater use of open-access scientific publications, the National Science Foundation and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), announced they have teamed for "SciVees" -- video and podcasts that supplement traditional peer-reviewed articles. The new Internet source, called SciVee (www.scivee.tv), is launching Sept. 1. The effort, funded through an NSF Small Grant for Exploratory Research, is led by Phillip E. Bourne, professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSD; and Leo M. Chalupa, Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology at the University of California, Davis. "We expect to disseminate science to the widest possible audience, thereby bringing the YouTube generation -- who are the next generation of leading scientists -- the best science using a medium they have adopted and use on a daily basis," Bourne said. Initially, SciVee will offer authors of Public Library of Science (PLoS, www.plos.org) publications the opportunity to upload videos and podcasts, which will then be synchronized with the published PLoS paper. Authors can also link specific moments in the SciVee with special features of the paper such as tables, figures and text selections. In subsequent phases, SciVee will be offered to all biomedical publications made available through PubMed, and then to all scientific literature. Organizers hope SciVee will eventually create online communities around scientific publications where members can comment and rate SciVees and the associated publications, and where participants maintain their own SciVees, including CVs and other material, which can be private or shared.