Researchers and scientific communication networks in the digital age and academic capitalism. Review of the monograph S. A. Dushina, V. A. Kupriyanov, T. Ju. Khvatova «Uchenye v setyakh “otkrytoi nauki”» [Scientists in the Networks of “Open Science”]

Abstract

The widespread adoption of digital technologies over the past decades has an increasingly significant impact on the academic environment. The book of S. A. Dushina, V. A. Kupriyanova, T. Yu. Khvatova «Scientists in the networks of “open science”» offers a comprehensive view of the problems of changes in the internal structure of modern science, the system of scientific communications and the place of the researcher in them. Combining the methods of informational, economic, sociological, historical, philosophical research in the monograph, the authors build a complex picture of both the prospects that open up for science as a whole, scientific communities and individual researchers of new opportunities, and new challenges that arise. Starting with the historical part which describes the formation of a system of scientific communication in Europe in the 17th century, the authors then proceed to the analysis of the modern system of knowledge exchange, highlighting its most significant components. Then, based on the analysis of the most significant concepts and their own empirical research, the authors form their understanding of the phenomenon ofa scientific career, analyzing not only cases of successful careers, but also the problem of “broken” careers, especially at the bottom of the career ladder. As a result, a complex but whole picture of developmental dynamics within scientific communications in the past and their features at the present stage of technological development appears before the reader’s eyes.