Despite the importance of social science knowledge for various stakeholders, measuring its diffusion into different domains remains a challenge. This study uses a novel text-based approach to measure the idea-level diffusion of social science knowledge from the research domain to the journalism and policy-making domains. By doing so, we expand the detection of knowledge diffusion beyond the measurements of direct references. Our study focuses on media effects theories as key research ideas in the field of communication science. Using 72,703 documents (2000-2019) from three domains (i.e., research, journalism, and policy-making) that mention these ideas, we count the mentions of these ideas in each domain, estimate their domain-specific contexts, and track and compare differences across domains and over time. Overall, we find that diffusion patterns and dynamics vary considerably between ideas, with some ideas diffusing between other domains, while others do not. Based on the embedding regression approach, we compare contextualized meanings across domains and find that the distances between research and policy are typically larger than between research and journalism. We also find that ideas largely shift roles across domains - from being the theories themselves in research to sense-making in news to applied, administrative use in policy. Over time, we observe semantic convergence mainly for ideas that are practically oriented. Our results characterize the cross-domain diffusion patterns and dynamics of social science knowledge at the idea level, and we discuss the implications for measuring knowledge diffusion beyond citations.

This study of literature focusing on 'AI Policy' over the past decade, found that citations of preprints, publications on platforms such as arXiv, have increased from five percent to forty percent across three major regions: the U.S., U.K. & E.U., and South Korea. We compare regional responses of preprint citations across the global disruptions of COVID-19 and the release of ChatGPT. We discuss driving factors and risks of preprint normalization, which follows the trend in computer science.

A team of philosophers and tech designers working together to create a multimedia, open source philosophical "search engine and social media done otherwise"! The following is how each of us muse about the making of Khora. Click to read Khôral Notes, a Substack publication. Launched 7 months ago.

POSI version 2.0 released October 2025 The POSI Adopters reviewed the version 1.1 principles and consulted with the community to create version 2.0, released in October 2025. The new/always-current version is below. Previous POSI versions version 1.1 from 2023. Marked up changes from version 1.1 to 2.0 (PDF) version 1.0 from 2015. Marked-up changes from version 1.0 to 1.1 with explanations (PDF) Governance Coverage across the scholarly enterprise – research transcends disciplines, geography, institutions, and stakeholders. Organisations and the infrastructure they run need to reflect this. Stakeholder governed – a board-governed organisation drawn from the stakeholder community builds confidence that the organisation will make decisions driven by community consensus and a balance of interests. Non-discriminatory participation or membership – we see the best option to be an “opt-in” approach with principles of non-discrimination and inclusivity, where any relevant group may express an interest and should be welcome. Representation in governance must reflect the character of the community or membership. Transparent governance – to foster trust, the processes and policies for governing the organisation and selecting representatives to governance groups should be transparent (within the constraints of privacy laws). Cannot lobby – infrastructure organisations should not lobby for regulatory change to cement their own positions or narrow self-interest. However, an infrastructure organisation’s role is to support its community, and this can include advocating for policy changes. Living will – to build trust, organisations should establish and communicate clear commitments regarding their long-term stewardship responsibilities, including the principles by which assets, data, resources, services, and staff would be responsibly transferred to a successor or the organisation or service wound down. The commitments should address future governance, with defined criteria for acceptable successor organisations. This should include continued alignment with POSI and any legal or structural constraints. Regular review of purpose and community value – Organisations and services should regularly review their relevance, effectiveness, and the level of community support to determine whether their continued operation is necessary. If no longer needed, they should take responsible steps to transition or wind down operations in consultation with the community and in alignment with their living will. Sustainability Transparent operations - to enable organisational accountability and openness, the operating policies and procedures, detailed financials, sustainability models, fees, strategic and product roadmaps, organisational charts, and other appropriate operational information should be made openly available (within the constraints of privacy laws). Information should be available for investigation and reuse by the community. Time-limited funds are used only for time-limited activities – operations should be supported by sustainable revenue sources, whereas time-limited funds are used only for time-limited activities. Depending on grants to fund ongoing and/or long-term operations fully makes organisations fragile and distracts from maintaining core infrastructure. Goal to generate surplus – it is not enough to merely survive; organisations and services have to be able to adapt and change. Organisations and services that define long-term sustainability based only on recovering costs risk becoming brittle and stagnant. To weather economic, social and technological volatility, organisations and services need financial resources beyond immediate operating costs. Establish and maintain financial reserves guided by policy – organisations and services should have a clear policy on maintaining financial reserves, including the purpose, minimum and maximum level, and governance of these funds. The actual level of reserves should be determined and periodically reviewed by the governing body, ensuring that resources are available to support Living Will implementation, including an orderly wind-down, transition to a successor, or response to major unforeseen events. A financial reserve policy might include how funds will be held, under what circumstances they will be used, and how much would be necessary for an adequate wind-down or transfer of assets, given the complexity of the organisation’s infrastructure. Mission-consistent revenue generation – revenue sources should be evaluated against the infrastructure’s mission and not run counter to the aims of the organisation or service. Revenue generated from services, not data – data related to the running of the scholarly infrastructure should be community property. Appropriate revenue sources might include value-added services, consulting, API Service Level Agreements, or membership fees. Volunteer labour - organisations that rely on volunteers and their labour should recognise this as a valuable resource for the organisation’s long-term viability, and factor it into sustainability planning and risk management. Transition planning - organisations that are heavily dependent on a limited number of individuals should take steps to reduce their dependence on these individuals, including via transition and succession planning, so that the organisation is not at risk of collapse in the event of their departure. Insurance Open source – all software and non-physical assets required to run the infrastructure should be available under an open-source licence. This does not include other software that may be involved with running the organisation. Ensure open and secure data accessibility within legal and ethical constraints – To support potential forking or replication, infrastructure should aim to make all relevant data openly available, following best practices such as applying a CC0 waiver where appropriate. This must be balanced with compliance with privacy, data protection, and security requirements. Organisations should have a clear policy outlining how private or sensitive data will be handled—particularly in the event of a transfer to another organisation—to ensure continuity, legal compliance, and responsible stewardship. Available and preserved – it is not enough that content, data, and software be “open” if there is no practical way to obtain them. These resources should be made easily available with clear public documentation about where they are and how to access them, as well as an open licence where possible. It is not enough that “open” resources are available. In line with the Living Will, it is essential to deposit content, data, and software with at least one trusted third-party digital archive. Patent non-assertion – the organisation should commit to a patent non-assertion policy or covenant. The organisation may obtain patents to protect its own operations, but not use them to prevent the community from replicating the infrastructure. Prioritise interoperability and open standards to ensure continuity and resilience - infrastructures should adopt and support widely accepted open standards—both formal and de facto—to ensure that systems, data, and services can be replicated, migrated, or integrated with minimal disruption without the use of proprietary extensions or software. Where relevant, organisations should document dependencies on standards. Cite as POSI Adopters (2025), The Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure, retrieved [date], https://doi.org/10.14454/G8WV-VM65

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