IOP Publishing announcment
As of January 1, 2010, IOP Publishing will no longer be managing the on-line publication, subscription fulfillment, or open access service of the Journal of High Energy Physics (ISSN 1029-8479). The decision was taken by SISSA, JHEP's owner, to move JHEP from IOP Publishing, a not-for-profit society publisher, to Springer...
IOP's partnership with SISSA remains unchanged on three other titles: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (
www.iop.org/journals/jcap); Journal of Instrumentation (
www.iop.org/journals/jinst); and Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (
www.iop.org/journals/jstat).
I hope that you will continue to support our complementary high energy publications, Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics (
www.iop.org/journals/jpg), Classical and Quantum Gravity (
www.iop.org/journals/cqg ), and Chinese Physics C ( formerly High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics) (
www.iop.org/journals/cpc ) . I also take this opportunity to remind you of eprintweb.org, our user-friendly e-print service based on arXiv from Cornell University Library...
For more information on SISSA, please visit their website,
www.sissa.it.
Labels: physics
JoVE: Journal of Visualized Experiments
I learned about JoVE at a recent workshop, and it's got great potential for teaching. Indexed in PubMed, Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is a peer reviewed, free access, online journal devoted to the publication of biological research in a video format. Essentially, it publishes videos of experiments in the life sciences.
What exactly does it do? To quote their site:
JoVE takes advantage of video technology to capture and transmit the multiple facets and intricacies of life science research. Visualization greatly facilitates the understanding and efficient reproduction of both basic and complex experimental techniques, thereby addressing two of the biggest challenges faced by today’s life science research community: i) low transparency and poor reproducibility of biological experiments and ii) time and labor-intensive nature of learning new experimental techniques.
You can browse experiments by category:
Basic ProtocolsNeuroscienceDevelopmental BiologyCellular BiologyPlant BiologyMicrobiologyImmunology...by date, by keyword, or use their search function. Sort of like watching baseball at home instead of at stadium. You can view closeups and instant replay if you missed something.
Designing library web sites
Interesting article on the process of designing a library web site in the July 2008 issue of CRL, by Jennifer Duncan and Wendy Holliday, titled, "The Role of Information Architecture in Designing a Third-Generation Library Web Site." Among the tidbits:
- Multiple types of usability testing are best (card sorts, rapid paper prototype testing, etc) as are ongoing usability testing
- Your site should be user-centered, not librarian- or web-designer-centered
- Have multiple paths to the same info on your site; there shouldn't be just 'one way' to get to a item
- Collecting data about how users actually use your web site helps deflect any internal conflict among Web committee members who may disagree about the best design
- The authors state their work on the Information Architecture Task Force took 6 months, but the actual design of site took 2 years
Labels: web design
NIH mandate working
Library Journal reports that the compliance rates for submission of papers based on publicly-funded research to the National Library of Medicine's
PubMed Central has dramatically increased since the National Institutes of Health passed its mandatory public access policy last year. Previously, NIH had a voluntary policy, and compliance rates were extremely low, approximately 4%. Since the mandatory policy was instituted, compliance rates have more than tripled. Conservative estimates place compliance rates in 55-60% range.
Following is more info on the policy taken from the
SPARC/ARL white paper entitled, COMPLYING WITH THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (“NIH”) PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY: COPYRIGHT CONSIDERATIONS AND OPTIONS:
On January 11, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) adopted a revised Public Access Policy for peer-reviewed journal articles reporting research supported in whole or in part by NIH funds. Under the revised policy, the grantee shall ensure that a copy of the author’s final manuscript, including any revisions made during the peer review process, be electronically submitted to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central (“PMC”) archive and that the person submitting the manuscript will designate a time not later than 12 months after publication at which NIH may make the full text of the manuscript publicly accessible in PMC.
Evidently coercion does work.
Labels: medical literature
Inadequate prep to teach elementary and middle-school math?
Chronicle of Higher Ed News Blog linked to a
report released today by the
National Council on Teacher Quality which gave college teacher-training programs "a failing grade for their preparation of teachers to teach elementary- and middle-school mathematics."
The advocacy group examined the curricula, textbooks, and assessment methods used at 77 undergraduate education programs and found that most programs had low standards of math knowledge required for entry and graduation, few devoted adequate time in the curriculum to courses on math content or math methods, and they rarely gave aspiring teachers an opportunity to practice teaching math.
Included in the report is a sample assessment quiz, entitled "Can Your Elementary-Teacher Graduates Pass This Test?".
The report lists specific colleges that are doing a good job and those that are not. (No mention of BU on any list.) And it also notes that PA is one of 29 states with requirements pertaining to foundations of mathematics, algebra, and geometry.
Mathematicians critique journal rankings
Thanks to Jennifer J. Harbster on the ERIL list for a link to the
Wall Street Journal's blog called "The Number Guy":
Mathematicians Critique Journal Rankings"Mathematicians are concerned about the academic world’s overreliance on questionable numbers. Three international math groups joined forces to issue
a report last week decrying the use of citation statistics to evaluate scientific journals, research institutions and individual scientists. These statistics, sometimes called 'bibliometrics,' measure how frequently a given journal’s articles are cited by other journals. And they are used widely by libraries and universities to decide everything from which journals to subscribe to, to which scientists to hire."
Labels: mathematics
New library databases
Andruss Library has added a number of new databases to our Web pages:
ARTstor - a digital library of approximately 550,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. (Arts & Humanities)
CHEMLIBnetBASE - Over 180 volumes of chemistry research online, ranging from nanoscale and natural products chemistry to separation methods and surfactant science. Available from CRC Press/Taylor and Francis (Sciences)
CHEMnetBASE - Contains CRC publications: Combined Chemical Dictionary, Dictionary of Commonly Cited Compounds, Dictionary of Drugs, Dictionary of Inorganic and Organometallic Compounds, Dictionary of Natural Products, Dictionary of Organic Compounds, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Polymers: a Property Database, and Properties of Organic Compounds. (Sciences)
GreenFILE - Information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment, including scholarly, government and general-interest titles with content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. (Sciences)
Humanities International Complete - Provides full text of over 770 journals, books and other published sources from around the world, covering all aspects of the humanities. (Arts & Humanities)
IOPscience -Provides access to over 80 full-text journals in physics, across scientific, technical and medical disciplines. 1874 - present. (Sciences)
Kraus Curriculum Development Library Online - A searchable database of curricula, frameworks, and standards that brings together educational objectives, content, instructional strategies, and evaluative techniques for all subjects covered in PreK-12 and Adult Basic Education.
Lexis-Nexis Congressional - Contains legislative information including texts of bills, legislative histories, and Congressional committee hearings. (Social Sciences)
Points of View Reference Center - Provides help in understanding the full scope of controversial subjects. Use as a guide to debate, developing arguments, writing position papers, and for development of critical thinking skills. Each essay includes a series of questions and additional material to generate further thought. (General)
Ulrich's Web - Contains bibliographic and publisher information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types — academic and scholarly journals, Open Access publications, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more from around the world. (Reference Sources)
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 - Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, originally published in approximately 13,800 bound volumes. (Social Sciences)
If you have any questions, comments, or problems regarding the Library's databases, please contact me.
Andruss Library New Books -- RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are a convenient way to have updated information from Web pages pushed to you automatically instead of going to those Web sites one by one. To use RSS feeds, you first need an RSS feed reader. Just do a Web search for 'rss feed reader' to find one. Or use the RSS feature built into Microsoft Outlook or the one in
RefWorks, the Library's bibliographic management program (this latter option works well for RSS feeds created from your saved searches in most of Andruss Library's databases).
Andruss Library now provides RSS feeds for new books added to our collection. You can easily customize your RSS feeds for specific Library of Congress subject classifications. For example,
click here for an RSS feed for newly acquired books classed in the Qs (Science).
For more information on RSS feeds, how to add them to Outlook, and a list of the New Book RSS feeds by LC subject,
click here or contact me.
RefWorks makes research easier!
If you've been using RefWorks, you know that the library's Article Linker button appears in your RefWorks' records. This button links you to the full text of a resource when available online or to the library's catalog, PILOT, when the resource is only in print (not electronic) format. For those databases which provide a permanent URL to full-text articles, like the EBSCOhost and ProQuest databases, you can paste that URL into the RefWorks' URL or DOI field for that record.
However, you can also attach a file to a record in your Refworks account or link directly to files on your computer from a RefWorks record. This option is useful when you have pdf files which you've obtained through ILL or document delivery and which aren't available in the databases. Just remember that if you attach files to your records, you're limited to 100MB, per account, for storage space; you're also limited to a maximum of 5MB limit per attachment.
Here are the steps to attach a file to a record:
- Click on 'Edit' next to the desired record.
- Click on 'Browse' next to the Attachments field within your record to locate the desired pdf/file.
- Click on 'Add Attachment'. A thumbnail icon will appear when the pdf/file is attached.
- Click on 'Save Reference'.
To link to a pdf or other file stored on a computer, follow these steps: [Note: This method works best using Internet Explorer. We recommend not using spaces or underscores in filenames.]
- Click on 'Edit' next to a record and enter the file name and path in the links or url field. Precede the path and file name with the text file:/// (Example: file:///E:\reflinks\sample.pdf). The file or path name may not contain spaces. To compensate for spaces you must enter a %20 to replace the space. (Example: file:///E:\Reflinks\sample%20document.pdf). An easy way to get the path to your pdf is to use your web browser. Open your web browser and click on 'File' and 'Open'. Browse to where your file is located. In the location or address bar of your browser you will see the path to your filename, similar to the example above. Copy the complete pathway to your file.
- In RefWorks, click on 'Edit' next to your desired record.
- Scroll to the 'URL' or 'links' field and paste in the pathway information.
- Click on Save Record.
- Click on View to display your record with the linked file pathway. Simply click on that link to open and view the pdf or file.The link will only open the document on the computer where the pdf resides.
I recommend that you save files to your 'P' drive as you may have problems linking to documents in your C:\drive. (The inability to link from web pages to files on C:\ is a security feature that was introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2.) Have the files in a folder only one or two layers down.
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know.
Using Blackwell’s Collection Manager for library book selection
Most of the books added to Andruss Library’s book collection (called the ‘General Collection’) are purchased by means of an ‘approval plan’ with our book vendor Blackwell. Blackwell sends books to the Library automatically based on ‘approval plan profiles’ for each discipline, which faculty members themselves have created. Profiles are based primarily on subject parameters but also include parameters like publisher, location, cost, type or level of treatment and so on. Approval plan books are added automatically to the General Collection unless they are ‘rejected’ by the faculty library representatives.
In addition to the approval plan, books are also added to the General Collection by means of ‘firm orders’; that is, specific books may be requested for purchase by faculty members. Each department is allocated a sum of money based on a formula for this purpose. This money allows departments to fill in the gaps in the Library’s General Collection for student research and curriculum-related topics.
In the past, to facilitate the selection of ‘firm orders’ each academic department has regularly received paper forms based on their ‘firm order profile’ via their 'library representative.' However, the Library has begun a transition to electronic forms, called ‘Enotes,’ which will replace the paper firm order forms at the end of Spring 2008.
What does this mean to you?
- First and foremost, no more paper slips to circulate!
- Any faculty member can request an account to access Blackwell Collection Manager, which contains publication information for books in print and forthcoming. By use of this account, you can easily let your library representative know what books you would like ordered for the Library.
- You can obtain more information about books from Enotes than from the paper slips, such as tables of contents, book jacket information, and book covers. Electronic books can also be previewed in their entirety online.
- You can 'force' forthcoming books into Andruss Library's book approval profile, which means that your department's firm order money will not be used to purchase them.
I have been working with the different science and health sciences departments to help them make the transition and have been making presentations to a number of departments, department chairs, and library representatives. Departments are handling the new system of placing firm orders in a variety of ways; we're in somewhat of an 'experimental' phase with the new system. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments or would like more information.
