Open Access study in Europe shows ~10% of articles published in OA journals

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“ Study of Open Access Publishing project presents findings of two-year EC funded study on OA publishing – 17 Jan 2011

The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project presented the results of its two-year European Commission (EU) funded examination of open access publishing at an open symposium on January 13, 2011, in Berlin, Germany. Over the two-year study duration, the SOAP project performed a comprehensive study of open access journals, publishers and business models, including analysis of publishing houses, learned societies and licensing along with the overall supply and demand for open access.

The study surveyed over 50,000 researchers for their opinions on open-access journals, which make all their papers freely available online and usually charge authors a fee for each published paper. According to the study, while scientists like open-access papers as readers, as authors, they are still skeptical. The study found overwhelming support for the concept, with 89 percent of respondents stating that open access is beneficial to their field. However, this support did not always translate into action, the study noted. While 53 percent of respondents said they had published at least one open-access article, overall only about 10 percent of papers are published in open access journals.

The study found two main reasons as to why researchers do not submit their work to open-access journals. About 40 percent said that a lack of funding for author fees was a deterrent, while 30 percent cited a lack of high-quality open-access journals in their field.

Requiring authors to make sure the results of their work are freely available has reportedly had only partial success. Robert Kiley, head of digital services at the Wellcome Trust’s Wellcome Library in London, said at the symposium that open-access rates had risen from 12 percent to 50 percent since the funder began requiring its grantees to publish in open-access journals or deposit their papers in a freely available repository. However, Kiley acknowledged that Wellcome Trust had not imposed sanctions on researchers who failed to comply.

The study also makes it clear that open-access journals are proliferating, especially among small publishers. It was observed that one-third of open-access papers were published by the more than 1600 open-access publishers that publish only a single journal. The study also identified 14 ‘large publishers’ that publish either more than 50 journals or more than 1000 articles per year. The group accounts for roughly one-third of open-access publications, the study noted.”

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter, 1/17/11

Alternative Energy eTrack — new database at Princeton

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Alternative Energy eTrack    

“Statistical reports on alternative power sources including wind, hydro, solar, geothermal, bio, ocean, transportation biofuels, fuel cells along with energy storage, efficiency, and infrastructure; and carbon. Also includes electricity power prices.”
Emphasis is on business, markets & products, & news.
Source: Database steering committee & Bobray Bordelon
Text from the Library’s Articles & Databases listings.
 
 

2011 — International Year of Chemistry — see ACS Calendar

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“ACS launches online calendar to mark International Year of Chemistry – 04 Jan 2011

The American Chemical Society (ACS) began a global, year-long observance of the International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) by launching an online calendar that serves as a virtual time machine, transporting the public back to some of the epic events and great intellects that shaped modern society through the magic of chemistry.

Called 365: Chemistry for Life, the calendar links almost 250 days of the year to events – triumphal and trivial – in chemistry, health, medicine, energy, the environment and related fields. They range from January 1 – which in 1907 saw the debut of the database that has fostered unprecedented scientific discovery – to December 31 and a scientific law about those New Year’s toasts with champagne. A mouse-click on the days in between revisits Joseph Priestley’s discovery of oxygen; the first successful treatment of diabetes with insulin; George Washington Carver’s discovery of hundreds of new uses for crops like peanuts; Marie Curie’s landmark research on radioactivity and much more.

ACS will hold a contest during the first quarter of 2011 in which visitors to the site can suggest topics for grayed-out dates – or better topics for active dates. The contents of filled-in dates are mere suggestions and not necessarily the final word. Individuals whose topics are accepted for inclusion in the calendar will be eligible for a drawing with prizes that include an iPad, an iPod Touch and an iPod nano.

The 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry, envisioning a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. Also being celebrated in 2011 is the centennial of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie for her work on radioactivity, and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies.”

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter

Image Search comes to Science.gov

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“Science.gov introduces Image Search link – 21 Dec 2010

Science.gov, a gateway to government science information provided by US Government science agencies, has introduced an Image Search link under Special Collections to enable users to quickly find science images, including animal and plant, weather and space, and earth and sun images and more. The information is free and no registration is required.

To begin with, three databases are being searched from one search box. These include: The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Library of Images from the Environment (LIFE), The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Image eXchange (NIX) and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Photo Library. More image databases will be added in the coming months.

In addition to the image search, Science.gov has undergone significant software upgrade for quicker performance. It has included both the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations in the basic search and also provides an author cluster on the results page. The alerts service has also been upgraded so that users can manage their Science.gov alerts directly from their alerts email and get daily alerts rather than weekly.

Science.gov is hosted by the Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information, within the Office of Science, and is supported by CENDI, an interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information managers. Currently in its fifth generation, Science.gov provides a search of over 42 scientific databases and 200 million pages of science information with just one query.”
Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter, 12/21/10

National Institutes of Health: Research Matters

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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 

MAA Podcast Center

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“The MAA Podcast Center of the Mathematical Association of America, the professional organization devoted to all aspects of collegiate mathematics education, offers audio files of lectures, generally by well-known mathematicians, along with supplementary materials. The podcasts cover a wide range of mathematical topics, including new areas, applications, history of mathematics, and mathematics in modern culture.”

 “Each topic has one or more audio files, written materials with links to supporting materials, and some video files. Some topics link to lectures from the MAA Distinguished Lecture Series http://www.maa.org/dist-lecture/ “

Source: Choice Reviews, Nov. 2010

eTBLAST — search engine for biomedical literature

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“eTBLAST is a unique search engine for searching biomedical literature. Our service is very different from PubMed. While PubMed searches for “keywords”, our search engine lets you input an entire paragraph and returns MEDLINE abstracts that are similar to it. This is something like PubMed’s “Related Articles” feature, only better because it runs on your unique set of interests. For example, input the abstract of an unpublished paper or a grant proposal into our engine, and with the touch of a button you’ll be able to find every abstract in MEDLINE dealing with your topic. No more guessing whether your set of keywords has found all the right papers. No more sorting through hundreds of papers you don’t care about to find the handful you were looking for–our search engine does it for you.”

From ETBLAST about page.

Originally noticed in ResearchBuzz, Oct. 28, 2010:

“A new tool for finding plagiarism in research papers.”

PubMed bibliographic records are enhanced by Images from NCBI

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“The PubMed Abstract display for PubMed Central® articles will be enhanced to include an image strip generated from the soon-to-be-released National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Images database.”  To see an example, click on the linked article below:

 

Canese K. PubMed® Display Enhanced with Images from the New NCBI Images Database. NLM Tech Bull. 2010 Sep-Oct;(376):e14.

Open Access Week, October 18 – 24, 2010 (4th Annual)

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“Leading the event is O[pen] A[ccess] advocate Dr. Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who currently directs the US National Cancer Institute. He is joined by Dr. Cameron Neylon, a biophysicist and open research advocate; Dr. Mona Nemer, professor and vice-president for research at the University of Ottawa; Dr. Roger Wakimoto, Director of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research; and a host of other researchers from around the globe.

“Presenters are expected to paint a clear picture of how OA has contributed to changing the research landscape and point to opportunities that lay ahead. Dr. Varmus has described OA as an ‘incredibly important development in the history of science’. Dr. Neylon noted how popular news stories now highlight a growing amount of research published in OA journals, which make that material directly available to people who want to dig deeper.”
Open Access Week is organised by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with guidance from an international panel of OA leaders.”

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter Oct. 19, 2010