Author Archives: Miggie Pickton
The digital story of the nativity
Social media, web and mobile technologies offer a new slant to an old story:
(ExcentricPT, 2010)
The Graduate School, RSBO and the LLS Research Support Team wish all Research Support Hub readers a peaceful and happy Christmas and the very best for 2013.
Top seven predictions for the future of research
Sarah Porter, head of innovation at the JISC, knows that technology is moving fast and believes that it will have an ever-increasing influence on the way researchers work. She and Torsten Reimer have come up with seven predictions for the future of research: Read the rest of this entry
New resource: Journal Citation Reports
Good news! The University now has a subscription to the sector’s leading tool for assessing the impact and prestige of scholarly journals: Journal Citation Reports (otherwise known as JCR).
Based on citation data from journals indexed by Thomson Reuters, JCR calculates and reports the impact factors that are boasted of and aspired to by publishers and editors of academic journals. For researchers, they can provide a rough and ready measure of journal quality and answer the oft-asked question of “where should I publish if I want my work to have the highest impact?”.
Why citation counts can’t always be trusted
I have written before about the limitations of citation analysis in identifying the ‘best’ research papers but I’ve never before seen anybody attempting to buy citations with marzipan.
According to Kent Anderson, CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, this apparently was how one eager Editor sought to increase his journal’s impact factor.
Read the full shocking story here.
Thanks to Jenny Delasalle of Warwick University for tweeting the above link.
Image credit: Musical Linguist on Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
New research initiatives in the School of the Arts
Submitted by Professor Janet Wilson
In 2012, the School of the Arts has hosted a range of innovative lectures and events as well as developing and launching a number of exciting interdisciplinary research groups. The Annual Postgraduate Conference (11th-14th September 2012) provided a welcome review of the range and vibrancy of doctoral projects within the School as well as featuring a keynote address by Performing Arts scholar at Brazil’s University of Bahia, Claudio Cajaiba.
Research assistant vacancy
Professor Alejandro Armellini of the university’s Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education is looking for a research assistant to contribute to and coordinate the research, development and consultancy activities of the Institute, both internally and externally.
The post is part time (0.5 FTE) and the successful applicant will also be expected to provide secretarial and administrative support.
If you think you might be interested then more information is available on the university’s current vacancies website, or contact Professor Armellini, Director of the Institute.
Mission groups: are they worth the cost?
Is membership of a mission group such as the Russell Group, 1994 group, Million+ or University Alliance worth the financial cost? The last year has seen a number of UK universities either switch from one mission group to another or withdraw altogether.
The University of Northampton has recently left the ‘Million+’ group of modern universities, with Vice Chancellor Professor Nick Petford stating:
“We can’t really see what value a mission group offers us anymore”. “We’d rather be independent and pick and choose the universities we want to work with”. “Million+, as a think tank, has a useful role to play. But it has almost become a millstone around our neck.”
Read more of this lead article in today’s Research Fortnight.
SpringerLink migration to new platform
SpringerLink have just announced that they will be moving to a new platform on November 16th. This should not affect access to content but if you have previously set up an individual account I am afraid that you will lose it.
If you currently have an individual account please carry on reading the following letter from Springer:
Journal impact factors
FAQ: What is a journal impact factor and why does it matter?
A journal’s impact factor is used to evaluate the relative importance of a journal in its field. The higher the impact factor, the more prestigious the journal. From a researcher’s point of view, ‘high impact’ journals are usually perceived to be the ‘best’ and most career enhancing places to be published.
The impact factor is a statistical measure; a journal with a high impact factor will have received more citations than one with a low impact factor.
Introducing research data management
Reporting on this event: Research data clinics – 30th October
Yesterday’s visit by Sarah Jones and Marieke Guy from the DCC gave a dozen or so Northampton researchers the chance to find out a bit more about the benefits and challenges of managing research data.
UON Graduate School Blog 
