This month ScienceWatch.com released the highest-cited papers from 20 countries spanning the globe.  The countries featured were selected based on their papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals from January 1998 through August 31, 2008.

The United States ranked number one with 2,959,661 papers and 42,269,694 citations.  The most cited article comes from the field of clinical medicine: “Mechanisms of disease: atherosclerosis – an inflammatory disease” (full text available in ProQuest).

In addition to clinical medicine, disciplines covered in the top 20 papers include: biochemistry, chemistry, physics, materials science and computer science.

ScienceWatch.com provides a behind-the-scenes look at the scientists, journals, institutions, nations, and papers selected by Essential Science Indicators.

Dibner Library now offers easy online access to the research journals published by the American Chemical Society.  With this new database, you can access some of the most cited peer-reviewed journals in the chemical and related sciences.

In addition to 34 research journals, the society also publishes the premier weekly news magazine of the chemical enterprise, Chemical & Engineering News.  ACS Publications provides searchable access to over 130 years of original research in chemistry, including more than 750,000 articles dating back to the inaugural volume of the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1879.

The journals included in this database cover a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines— biotechnology, analytical chemistry, applied chemistry, biochemistry & molecular biology, chemical biology, chemical engineering, computer science, energy & fuels, food science, environmental science, inorganic & nuclear chemistry, material science, medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, pharmacology, physical chemistry, polymer science, and toxicology.

Environment Complete offers deep coverage in a wide variety of disciplines including ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Environment Complete contains more than 1,957,000 records from more than 1,700 domestic and international titles going back to the 1940s.

The database contains full text for more than 680 journals such as:

• American Journal of Environmental Sciences
• Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics
• Ecologist
• Journal of Environmental Engineering & Science
• Power Engineering
• Pollution Engineering

In addition, it provides full text for 120 monographs, such as Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (3 volumes), Advances in Water Treatment & Environmental Management, and many others.

Founded in 1932, Annual Reviews provides researchers and professors with a definitive academic resource in 37 scientific disciplines. Annual Reviews saves you time by synthesizing the vast amount of primary research literature and identifying the principal contributions in your field.

Editorial committees comprised of the most distinguished scholars in the discipline select all topics for review, and the articles are written by authors who are recognized experts in the field. Annual Reviews publications are among the highest cited publications by impact factor according to the Institute for Scientific Information.

Some of the titles include:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Biomedical Engineering
• Biophysics
• Cell and Developmental Biology
• Computer Science
• Fluid Mechanics
• Materials Research
• Nuclear and Particle Science
• Physical Chemistry

Browse the complete list (log in required when off campus).

The Dibner Library now offers online access to many of the journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. Log in to the RSC database to explore this rich collection that covers the major areas of chemistry - physical, inorganic, organic, and materials.

The flagship journal from the RSC is Chemical Communications, which publishes short reports of the most innovative research in all areas of the chemical sciences. Other journals covered in the library’s subscription include:

•  Annual Reports Sections A, B & C
•  The Analyst
•  Analytical Abstracts
•  Catalysts & Catalysed Reactions
•  Chemical Society Reviews

[Read more →]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology. The agency publishes standards many of which are free, including Ceramics WebBook, Chemistry WebBook and Physical Reference Data. To satisfy your curiosity, check out the complete list at the NIST Data Gateway, and get to know your standards.

In-cites compiled the 100 most-cited scientists for 2007 in the following fields:

• Biology & Biochemistry
• Chemistry
• Economics & Business
• Immunology
• Microbiology
• Molecular Biology & Genetics
• Neuroscience & Behavior
• Pharmacology & Toxicology
• Physics

Did you know that flour is a hydrocolloid? Flour is a fairly common cooking ingredient, but obscure ingredients once found on the lower reaches of processed foods labels are now finding their way into high cuisine, enabling dishes like pretzel shaped foie gras. Chefs are using science to better understand their cooking, and to create new ways of cooking.

This trend melds two areas that seem as if they should be closely intertwined, but have in fact been almost separate: culinary arts and food science. Food science arose as a way to preserve the shelf life of processed foods.

In the New York Times article, Food 2.0: Chefs as Chemists, food science writer Harold McGee notes that ten years ago “no serious restaurant would be caught dead using these ingredients … Because they were industrial stabilizers for the most part.” But then chefs began to ask what these ingredients do, and how they could be used in cooking, which is, after all, applied chemistry, and a hydrocolloid best known for growing bacteria in petri dishes can also be combined with another material to build a transparent sheet which can be used to cover hot food.

Check out the links below and use the power of science and technology to help make your Thanksgiving meal extra tasty. Or simply impress your friends and family at the dinner table with your knowledge of the science of Turkey Day.

• Turkey Day Chemistry in the Kitchen
• Thanksgiving Meals: Cooking with Chemistry
  
• Thanksgiving Cooking for Engineers
• Turkey Lovers Gobble up Tech

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: [Read more →]

The results are in for the 2007 Nobel Prizes in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry:

• Medicine or Physiology: Awarded to a trio of scientists who independently studied genetics to find therapies and cures for hundreds of disorders and diseases. The scientists pioneered the creation of “designer mice” to demonstrate the roles of different genes in human development. Gene targeting in mice is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine, from basic research to the development of new therapies. Learn More

• Physics: Awarded to two scientists whose discovery of the phenomenon known as giant magnetoresistance (MGR) has led to the miniaturization of data storage and is recognized as one of the key breakthroughs in modern computing and electronics. No doubt you own one of the many electronic devices that rely on tiny hard drives made possible by MGR (e.g. iPod, laptop, PDA, DVD player…) Learn More

• Chemistry: Awarded to a scientist for his breakthrough work in surface chemistry. The award-winning research explored how individual layers of atoms and molecules behave on the surface of catalysts. Not only can this science help us understand why iron rusts, it can help scientists produce renewable fuels more efficiently and create new materials for electronics. Learn More

Nobel Prizes for Literature, Peace and Economics will be announced over the following five days.

Inspired by the Nobels? Consider learning more about a lesser-known, bizarre period of the Nobel Prize legacy by reading The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank. Available in the library (call number: HQ761 .P56 2005).