The DPLA, to be launched on April 18, is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all—online and free of charge.
From today’s New York Review of Books
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News [update@genengnewsmail.com]
Feb 15, 2013 (Vol. 33, No. 4)
“If you get a kick out of beautifully animated scientific movies, then you’ll be beside yourself with excitement when you visit MolecularMovies.org, a site that has compiled a large number of science animations from all over the web. Links to the animations can be found on the “showcase” page, where users can sort animations by scientific area, animator, or date added, can search all animations by keyword, or can jump to animations falling within a given scientific topic. There are 22 topics represented, and they range from adhesion/extracellular matrix, to DNA/chromatin, to neuronal signaling, and beyond. The animations are not embedded within this site itself, and there do exist a few problems with some of the links; however, most of the links worked as expected. Beyond the animations, the Molecular Movies site also includes some software animation tutorials and a newsfeed covering the latest in molecular animation.”
*The opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and should not be construed as reflecting the viewpoints of the publisher, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., the publishing house, or employees and affiliates thereof.
Rating = 4 stars = excellent
Strong points: large collection of animations
Weak points: some links didn’t work
 |
| www.molecularmovies.com |
“Website for new open-access journal, eLife, launched — 17 Dec 2012
eLife, a new open-access journal for outstanding advances in life science and biomedicine, reveals a fresh approach to presenting and using scientific content on its new website.”
“The eLife journal invites visitors to explore important new research and associated data, read comments and commentary by experts and colleagues, and get a sense of the quality of work that eLife is publishing. Nineteen research papers have now been selected for publication by eLife’s academic editors.
The new site also offers a chance to explore how eLife is taking advantage of digital media. Presentation of content is clean and distraction-free, allowing authors to present the results of their research in full, and inviting readers to delve deeply into the work by exploring figures and their supplements, watching videos, reading editor decision letters and author responses, downloading data sets, viewing article-level metrics, and more. All of this is a starting point, as eLife will continue to solicit feedback from the community in making the presentation as accessible and usable as possible.
The eLife journal is now online at http://elife.elifesciences.org.”
Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter, Dec. 17, 2012
Subtitle: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering
Description: From What’s New @ the National Academies, Sept. 10, 2012:
“The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science …“
Read More
World of Science was given a 4-star review in the May 15, 2012, issue of “Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News”. Eric Weisstein is a web encyclopedia author. This portal is available via Wolfram Alpha, within which there are 5 portals for Math, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and Biography. “Beautifully designed”, “easy to navigate” and a “wealth of information”
“
PubMed Central renamed PMC, adopts new web page design — 06 Aug 2012
PubMed Central, the repository of the US’ National Institutes of Health, has shortened its name to PMC in a bid to avoid being confused with PubMed. It has also gone for a new look and feel, and has been updated to conform to NCBI’s new standards for page design. The redesign is seen to allow for a cleaner and more uniform presentation across PMC’s site as well as its article, issue and journal archive pages.
For instance, the journal logo is on the page centre, with additional white space. The navigation links are designed to be more compact while the font colours are more uniform across the site. The article pages have also been enhanced by a more compact presentation for article front matter, featuring links to author information, article notes and copyright and licence information.
The views for tables and figures have been enhanced. Other improvements to the new article page include easier readability and navigation, including links to the various article formats, and to the corresponding article citation in PubMed as well as to those PubMed citations that are related to the article.
There is also an enhanced look for bibliographic citations that are referenced in the article. Finally, at the top of each section of an article, the “Go to” navigation links offer a drop down menu that takes the reader to any section more quickly and easily, whether it’s the Abstract, Introduction, Discussion, or any others within the article page.
”
Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter, Aug. 6, 2012
Versita Launches Open Access Journal Program
From ResourceShelf Newsletter No. 558, May 31, 2012
From the press release:
Academic publisher Versita announced today the launch of a new program of Open Access journals. 100 Emerging Science Journals are being launched in 2012. The program’s focus is on young and rapidly developing fields of science, which have not yet been covered by a designated journal. The emerging topics have been identified in Life Sciences, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics and Mathematics.
…One of the main reasons of this outstanding support is the Open Access publishing model, which provides free and unlimited access to the journal articles for all interested readers. In view of Academic Spring – and with Open Access gaining a momentum across scholar communities worldwide — Versita is not planning any publication fees for the first two years.
ASU (Arizona State University) Libraries have posted a concise piece about Open Access to scholarly research in ” The Library Channel” newsletter: http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/2012/05/21/petition/
There is a video and a link to more information as well as the petition at http://www.whitehouse.gov
Freely share the data and the knowledge!
Today Kansas and 21 other
universities and colleges announced that they’re joining forces to form the
Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions, or Coapi. The new group will
“collaborate and share implementation strategies, and advocate on a national
level,” it said in a statement.
Read more: http://bit.ly/p8A9eo
Source: Trevor Dawes, Circulation Services Director, Princeton Univ.
National Institutes of Health: Research Matters
http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/
“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) generates thousands of pieces of important research every year, and even the most dedicated individual would be hard pressed to keep track of all these items. The Research Matters site from NIH makes this all a snap, as users can peruse the latest news releases from their many different research divisions. To get started, first-time visitors may want to look at the “Editor’s Picks”, which have included pieces like “Aspects of Aging Might be Reversed” and “Controlling Computers with Your Mind”. There’s also a search engine on the homepage, and visitors can subscribe to their RSS feed or sign up for regular email updates. On the left-hand side of the homepage, visitors will find “Quick Links” to multimedia features, the “News in Health” newsletter, and various podcasts.”
The update is weekly, and one can subscribe.Source: Today’s Scout Report, Univ. of Wisconsin
