Category Archives: Scientific Data Management

Blogspeak discussion: the future of science publishing

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 Latest edition of Blogspeak now online – 06 Apr 2009

The third edition of blogspeak is now online. Featured are Steven Sieck (Science Publishers Stepping Up Online Community Initiatives); Charlie Rapple (If we invented the scholarly journal today, what would it look like?"); Morgan Langille (Is PLOS One the future of scientific publishing?); Kheskett (EndNote & HubMed); and John Timmer (Social search doesn’t pan out for Jimmy Wales, Wikia Search). A service of Knowledgespeak.com, Blogspeak includes blog posts relevant to the publishing industry, particularly STM publishing. Subscribers are invited to participate in the latest edition of blogspeak at http://www.knowledgespeak.com/Blog/Blog_Index_More.asp?MID=1#41.

ScienceBlogs.com launches in Brazil

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"ScienceBlogs.com launches ScienceBlogs Brazil – 19 Mar 2009

ScienceBlogs.com, part of science media company Seed Media Group, US, has announced the launch of its latest international site, ScienceBlogs Brazil (scienceblogs.com.br). ScienceBlogs.com is claimed to be the largest blogging network dedicated to science.

ScienceBlogs Brazil seeks to bring together original and influential voices within the Brazilian science community, some of whom have already won accolades for their blogging. Edited from São Paulo by Carlos Hotta and Atila Iamarino, ScienceBlogs Brazil launches with 23 Portuguese-language blogs on topics ranging from genetics to the environment.

With its growing science community and emphasis on science as a cornerstone of economic growth, Brazil is emerging as a vital player in global science culture. The country is the fifth most populous in the world and has over 67 million Internet users. ScienceBlogs publishes more than 130 blogs around the world spanning all areas of science and all intersections of science and society.

Click here"

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter, Mar.19, 2009

e-Science — a Research Guide from the Library of Congress

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Science Reference Services of the Science, Technology & Business Division of the Library of Congress, has created this research guide E-SCIENCE dated January, 2009.  There are many useful research guides at their website;  they list key books, journals, databases, technical reports, dissertations, etc.   The series is called "Science Tracer Bullets Online"

The definition of "e-science" from the introduction to the guide:

"The term e-Science refers to large scale science that is carried out through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet. Typically, such collaborative scientific enterprises require access to very large data sets, very large scale computing resources, and high performance visualization. e-Science is a digital infrastructure that allows scientists to conduct research in new ways. Common terminology related to e-Science include cyberinfrastructure, grids, grid computing, distributed networks, and high performance computing."

Portico Archive now holds 10 million articles

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US Ten million journal articles preserved within Portico archive – 06 Feb 2009

"Non-profit electronic archiving service provider Portico, US, has announced that more than 10 million journal articles are preserved within the Portico archive. Launched in 2005 with support from JSTOR, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ithaka, and the Library of Congress, Portico provides a permanent archive of scholarly literature published in electronic form.

The Portico archive is supported by both publishers and libraries and is increasingly central to the digital preservation and permanent access strategies of institutions around the world.

The growth of the archive underscores the importance of preservation archives in facilitating a secure transition from print to electronic collections. At the close of 2008, 68 publishers producing journals and e-books on behalf of hundreds of scholarly societies participated in Portico and have entrusted over 8,200 journal titles and 4,600 e-books to the archive. Libraries from the global community have been equally supportive of Portico with nearly 500 current participants from 13 countries.

Click here"

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter

Technical Report & Image Library – TRAIL

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I just learned of this database of technical reports housed at Manoa, Univ. of Hawaii, via the Chemical Information Listserv — from the Univ. of Arkansas’ Engineering and Math Librarian.

"TRAIL-Technical Report Archive and Image Library: a collaborative project to digitize, archive, and provide persistent and unrestricted access to federal technical reports issued prior to 1975."

Actually, they have reports from much later than 1975.  Browsing is available, as well as detailed search functionality.

STATISTICS:

  • Total reports in database: 1052
  • Total fulltexts in database: 330
  • Total images in database: 946

Organizations Involved:
The Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA – www.gwla.org) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL – www.crl.edu) are collaborating on a pilot project.

These are picked up by Google, not (necessarily?)  Google Scholar, and not by Scirus. Scopus and  U.S. Government databases will pick up (index) the reports, but probably won’t link to the full texts.

Scientific Data Service from Google — No Go

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US Google to close scientific data service prior to official launch – 22 Dec 2008

Internet search services provider Google, US, will reportedly close its highly-anticipated scientific data service, Google Research Datasets, in January without even officially launching the product. The company has announced this in an e-mail to its beta testers, according to media reports.

The service was expected to offer scientists a way to store the huge amounts of data generated in an increasing number of fields. Nearly 30 datasets – mostly tests – had already been uploaded to the site.

Calling off the scientific project is seen to be another sign of initial frugality at Google. Just a few weeks ago, the company’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, told the Wall Street Journal that Google would be cutting back on experimental projects. It would, instead, focus its efforts on other activities such as Google Scholar, its research programmes and publishing papers about research at Google.

However, some scientists remain hopeful that the service might return in better times. Google representatives have not responded to requests for comments.

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter, Dec. 22, 2008