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Scoping Statement

michi-gato edited this page Aug 10, 2020 · 10 revisions

Between June through September 2020, OSHI will conduct a systematic literature review on the development and evolution of the open source hardware and instrumentation landscape. The review will be submitted for publication to JASIST by Fall 2020, which will then highlight research gaps to inform a project design that will begin in the Fall.

What is Relevant for our review

  • Open Hardware, open source hardware, and open instrumentation that is either licensed, or documented in some open way (this can be broadly interpreted)
  • Definition and context of open source
  • Difference between OSS and OSH (bits vs. atoms)
  • History of OSH
  • OSH in education and education of OSH
  • OSH certification process - previous and current practices (Who, what, when, how)
  • Standards and specifications
  • OSH evolution - accessibility, affordability, diversity of fields involved

What is Not Relevant for our review

  • Human Computation systems - arrangements which mimic the processing component of a hardware computer
  • Potentially: Making and makerspaces - this literature is in my mind too broadly in the DIY space and will be out of scope (e.g. etsy)
  • History of licensing and copyright - this is a part of the development of OSH but does not need to be recounted in-depth

Inclusion criteria

  • Peer reviewed publications - white papers, or grey literature are out of bounds
  • English language only
  • Accessible to our research team - just because we find a citation / mention in a database does not mean that the literature actually exists
  • Published in date range 2008-2020

Method of Gathering Literature

  • Gather list of OSHI-related journals, publications, databases
    • Harvest and OCR all articles from journals
    • Identify grey lit (e.g., conference proceedings, etc.). Harvest and OCR presentations, papers, etc.
  • Identify terminology (list found in same gathering_OSHI_pubs sheet)
  • All articles will be saved to Zotero, which will be cleaned throughout the weeding and review process.
  • Search articles' reference lists of seminal studies.
    • Which articles have cited these seminal studies?
  • Contact OSHI-relevant experts for recommended resources. See OSHI_people list

Organize & Prepare Literature for a coherent review

End Goal: Identify Research Gaps for a Fall project


Some relevant places to get started for the overview section of the review:

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