Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
Academia Introduces ‘Reasons For Downloading’
Academia’s mission is to accelerate the pace of the world’s research. We’ve added a new feature called ‘Reasons For Downloading’ to improve communication between authors and readers. The way it works is that readers can leave messages for authors when they download papers.
Readers have the option to tell authors what sparked their interest in the paper. These will be sent to authors as messages, who will now be able to learn much more about the impact their work is having in the world. Here are a few examples of ‘reasons for downloading’ left by readers:
A farmer in the sahara posted about water conservation:
“I farm in the Sahara desert so conserving water is important to me, and I want to find out more about how to re use our limited water to feed myself and my animals.”
A teacher left a reason for downloading a paper on longhand vs. laptop note taking:
“My kids are in a K-8 school. The school says pencils will be banned in 2017. I am looking for research to change that decision”
A bachelor left a reason downloading a paper on Masbatenyo grammar:
“I just met the girl I want to marry and I want to know about her by learning her native language”
A computer scientist left a reason for downloading a paper on ethnobotanical quantification:
“I am working on digitizing Strychnos Ligustrina for traditional medicine to cure Malaria”
A farmer left a reason for downloading a paper on acid soils:
“I want to increase production of corn in the jungle of Peru. So I need more knowledge about NPK. It is hard to find research for jungle soil and new hybrid seed. Usually the hard yellow corn has low t/ha but they don’t need any care. On the other hand, hybrid corns need fertilizer but there is not much information available to us.”
We would also love to hear your feedback about this new feature. Please feel free to contact us at hello@academia.edu.
