PolyThinkers Pad » Scholarly Publishing http://www.poly.edu/library/blog fueling polythinking with library news, tips and more Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:22:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 en New development in publishing: more digital titles from smaller publishers may soon be available. http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/09/04/new-development-in-publishing-more-digital-titles-from-smaller-publishers-may-soon-be-available/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/09/04/new-development-in-publishing-more-digital-titles-from-smaller-publishers-may-soon-be-available/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:04:43 +0000 Gavin technology http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/09/04/new-development-in-publishing-more-digital-titles-from-smaller-publishers-may-soon-be-available/ Coming soon to your e-reader, more specialized, esoteric material, courtesy of small publishers. Are you a fan of digital readers, but have been frustrated by the limited variety of contemporary reading material? A wide range of copyright free material is accessible via project Gutenberg and other digital libraries, but contemporary copyrighted material has been limited to mainly mainstream titles, made available by large publishers that could afford to spend money on digital resources.

An agreement between Perseus  Books Group and several technology companies may soon lead to a welcome change.  It will make digital publishing technology available to small publishers with limited budgets who could not otherwise afford it.  Hopefully, this will increase sales not only of electronic files meant for digital media readers, but also of the hardcopy books, as it will enable the “look inside the book” technology used by major online booksellers.   (Online shoppers are more likely to purchase a book once they have seen a sample of its content.)  The increased digital accessibility of books from smaller publishers will be good not only for those publishers, but also good for the publishing business,  and good for readers.

For recent posts on digital readers, see

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/09/04/new-development-in-publishing-more-digital-titles-from-smaller-publishers-may-soon-be-available/feed/ New tools from Microsoft help you research, write and publish http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/08/15/new-tools-from-microsoft-help-you-research-write-and-publish/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/08/15/new-tools-from-microsoft-help-you-research-write-and-publish/#comments Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:01:46 +0000 Ingrid http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/08/15/new-tools-from-microsoft-help-you-research-write-and-publish/ Microsoft recently released a set of new software that helps scholars write, edit, and publish academic articles. The tools, which are add-ons to popular programs such as Word, also seek to help readers conduct searches in electronic databases more efficiently by making it easy for authors to electronically embed research details.

The Article Authoring Add-in for Word 2007 enables authors to structure and annotate their documents according to formats that publishers and digital archives require. Another product allows you to embed information about copyrights and licenses in your documents. And the best part is Microsoft is offering the new software free to licensed users of Word and other Microsoft products.

Details and downloads for these new Microsoft tools are available here: Microsoft Scholarly Communication.

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/08/15/new-tools-from-microsoft-help-you-research-write-and-publish/feed/ Find peer reviewed author’s rights information with SHERPA/RoMEO http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/31/find-peer-reviewed-authors-rights-information-with-sherparomeo/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/31/find-peer-reviewed-authors-rights-information-with-sherparomeo/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:48:33 +0000 Gavin open access http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/31/find-peer-reviewed-authors-rights-information-with-sherparomeo/ If  you have ever published a paper or plan to publish one in this age of freely available web information and the attendant ownership controversies, you may be wondering what you are allowed to do with your paper after it has been published or approved for publication.  SHERPA/RoMEO is a database that lets you know what rights are normally give to author’s by journal publishers.

You can search the database by journal title or publisher name.  There is also a color coded system that allows you to browse all the publications that fall into a particular category:

  • Green: can archive pre-print and post-print
  • Blue: can archive post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing)
  • Yellow: can archive pre-print (ie pre-refereeing)
  • White: archiving not formally supported

Regulary using this tool instead of tracking down the individual publications can save you much time and energy.    For more time saving ideas, be sure to peruse the Tips and Tools section of PolyThinker’s Pad.

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/31/find-peer-reviewed-authors-rights-information-with-sherparomeo/feed/ Digital battlefields: first music, then videos, now textbooks http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/28/digital-battlefields-first-music-then-videos-now-textbooks/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/28/digital-battlefields-first-music-then-videos-now-textbooks/#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:39:46 +0000 Gavin technology http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/28/digital-battlefields-first-music-then-videos-now-textbooks/ Media companies moved into the online world with trepidation, seeing the opportunities in providing online music and movie viewing and downloading for a fee, but also fearing copyright violation.  Many in the music and movie audience, especially young people, believed the media companies were gouging them with high prices for DVDs and CDs, and felt little remorse at procuring and providing  free downloads. (more…)

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/28/digital-battlefields-first-music-then-videos-now-textbooks/feed/ Is the Internet Bad for Science? http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/18/is-the-internet-bad-for-science/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/18/is-the-internet-bad-for-science/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:32:24 +0000 Ingrid researchtechnology http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/18/is-the-internet-bad-for-science/ Using the internet to search for scientific articles is narrowing the range of findings by researchers, says University of Chicago sociologist James Evans in an article published yesterday in Science.

His argument is a classic computer-versus-paper library dilemma, updated for science: when researchers search online, they tend to arrive at just a few high-ranking articles. Lost is the breadth of scholarship encountered by old-fashioned, page-turning browsing.

Read the full story at Wired Science.

More information and a video interview with James Evans is available at the National Science Foundation.

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/07/18/is-the-internet-bad-for-science/feed/ Harvard research to become Open Access http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/02/15/harvard-research-to-become-open-access/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/02/15/harvard-research-to-become-open-access/#comments Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:28:40 +0000 Ingrid open access http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/02/15/harvard-research-to-become-open-access/ The movement towards Open Access (free, online access to scholarly works) received a big boost this week. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard voted unanimously to make their scholarly articles available online for free. The library will oversee a newly created Office of Scholarly Communication that will handle the project.

Visit Dibner Library’s links on delicious for more information on Open Access.

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/02/15/harvard-research-to-become-open-access/feed/ National Institutes of Health research to become free online http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/01/10/national-institutes-of-health-research-to-become-free-online/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/01/10/national-institutes-of-health-research-to-become-free-online/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:34:02 +0000 Ingrid biologymedicineopen accessresearchweb resources http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/01/10/national-institutes-of-health-research-to-become-free-online/ In accordance with a new spending bill signed by President Bush last month, all research funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will now be required to be published online, free to the public, within 12 months after publication in any scientific journal. Seeing as NIH has a $29 billion research budget, this new directive should open up a world of new opportunities for online research.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2008/01/10/national-institutes-of-health-research-to-become-free-online/feed/ Top ten high impact science journals http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/11/14/top-ten-high-impact-science-journals/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/11/14/top-ten-high-impact-science-journals/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:09:39 +0000 Ingrid referenceresearch http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/11/14/top-ten-high-impact-science-journals/ Whether a professor wants you to cite high impact journals in an assignment or you are looking for a place to publish your work, knowing what “high impact” really means is an essential first step.

A journal’s impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the “average article” in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It helps you evaluate a journal’s relative importance, especially when comparing it to others in the same field. The impact factor is calculated by dividing the number of current citations to articles published in the two previous years by the total number of articles published in the same period.

Although some in the scientific community have raised questions over the limited usefulness of the impact factor, the measure is still taken seriously by and large.

So which journals have a high impact factor? Thomson Scientific recently released a table ranking high impact journals in multidisciplinary sciences. Browse Thomson’s SCI-BYTES web site for journal rankings in a variety of disciplines, including robotics, statistics and others.

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/11/14/top-ten-high-impact-science-journals/feed/ Featured Resource: Directory of open access journals http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/10/17/featured-resource-directory-of-open-access-journals/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/10/17/featured-resource-directory-of-open-access-journals/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:47:45 +0000 Ingrid biological engbiologychemical engchemistryhistorymechanical engmedicineopen accessphysicsresearchtechnologyweb resources http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/10/17/featured-resource-directory-of-open-access-journals/ Open Access publishing continues to rise at an astronomical rate as researchers hope to maximize their impact by providing free access to their scholarly articles online. But all this newly available material does little good if you don’t know where to find it. Fortunately the good folks at Lund University in Sweden have created the Directory of Open Access Journals.

The Directory of Open Access Journals is a carefully vetted list of fully open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals covering all subjects and languages. It currently lists a total of 2,870 journals, with a net growth rate of 1.2 titles per calendar day over the past year. The directory aims to be a “one stop shop for users to Open Access Journals.”

Subjects covered in the Directory include: (more…)

]]> http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/10/17/featured-resource-directory-of-open-access-journals/feed/ What lies ahead for the future of scholarly communication? http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/09/13/what-lies-ahead-for-the-future-of-scholarly-communication/ http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/09/13/what-lies-ahead-for-the-future-of-scholarly-communication/#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:59:48 +0000 Ingrid computer scienceelectrical-computer engopen access http://www.poly.edu/library/blog/2007/09/13/what-lies-ahead-for-the-future-of-scholarly-communication/ With the rise of Open Access and advances in cyberinfrastructure, scholarly communication is in the midst of upheaval. What will this mean for the academic world, the research community, and the advancement of science overall? These are some of the questions addressed by that the latest issue of CTWatch Quarterly: “The Coming Revolution in Scholarly Communications & Cyberinfratructure”

CTWatch Quarterly is an online journal that focuses on cyberinfrastructure related research critical to collaboration and information dissemination within the science community. Past issues are available online in the Issues Archive.

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