Blog Archives
Journal Citation Reports: 2012 data now available
Thomson Reuters have just released the 2012 Edition of Journal Citation Reports (JCR).
Eagerly awaited by editors and publishers alike, JCR is the authoritative source of journal impact factors for nearly 11,000 peer reviewed journals.
In this edition some 379 journals have received their first impact factor and 66 have had theirs suppressed due to ‘anomolous citation patterns’ (JCR Notices).
Free trial: new resources from Web of Knowledge
Until 31 August Thomson Reuters are offering free access to additional databases on Web of Knowledge. They say:
“In addition to active subscriptions to Web of Science, BIOSIS, and Medline, member institutions now have access to:
- Comprehensive research data from international data repositories
- Bibliographic and table of contents information from world-leading scholarly journals and books
- Authoritative research information in all applied life sciences fields like biomedical, animal studies, agriculture and more
- Coverage of applied research in food science, technology, and nutrition
- Bibliographic and citations information from 1,200 core science and engineering journals published in the People’s Republic of China
- A comprehensive index to the global journal and proceedings literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities
- Patent and patent citation information”.
Accessing electronic theses
FAQ: How can I get hold of a PhD thesis on my chosen topic?
Other people’s theses can be useful for both content and framework. Not only are they useful models for new PhD students, but also they contain comprehensive literature reviews, detailed methodologies and interesting findings which can be compared with one’s own.
There are a couple of key sources of UK theses: EThOS and Index to Theses. Printed copies of Northampton theses are also available in the two university libraries and indexed in NECTAR.
Mendeley bought by Elsevier
Are you a Mendeley user?
If so, you may be interested to see what happens now that Mendeley has been bought out by Elsevier.
At £65m the benefits to the creators of Mendeley are clear to see, but how will its user community fare under the new ownership? There seem to be some concerns among academics that Mendeley will lose some of its independence and openness – you can follow the discussion here.
Update 16/4/2013: Further discussion from Research Information here.
Thanks to Ray Kent from De Montfort University for sharing this news on the JISCmail MORE list.
Improve your research skills with a little help from CfAP
Choosing the right tool to analyse your data or finding the best way to structure your findings can be a fraught process. However help is on hand from the Centre for Achievement and Performance – otherwise known as CfAP.
CfAP exists to help all students, including those doing research degrees, achieve their academic potential:
“If you were training for the Olympics you may need to work on aspects of weight, speed or flexibility to improve your performance and to gain insights into how your body works. Visiting CfAP should be regarded in a similar way – you wish to work on aspects of your academic work to improve your performance and to gain a better understanding of how you learn. As with athletes, taking responsibility for your own development leads to success.”
(Sandy Gilkes, National Teaching Fellow)
CfAP staff have recently created a new site on NILE; it is open to everyone and there is no need to enrol. The site contains a huge range of materials to support all aspects of academic endeavour. Read the rest of this entry
Launch of the UK Data Service
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has just announced the launch of a new national service that will consolidate and incorporate four established data services and websites:
- Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)
- Census.ac.uk
- Secure Data Service (SDS)
- Survey Question Bank (SQB)
The UK Data Service offers a a single point of access to a wide range of secondary data including large-scale government surveys, international macrodata, business microdata, qualitative studies and census data from 1971 to 2011. Read the rest of this entry
Free trials of resources from Palgrave and Taylor & Francis
Two trials are on offer. Make the most of them while you can! 
Taylor and Francis
- This 30 day trial has been arranged by the library and provides access to two complete collections of Taylor & Francis journals: Social Science and Humanities and Science and Technology
- The extra content is accessed via the A-Z list of databases in NELSON or go directly to Taylor and Francis Online
- Use your University single sign-on credentials to log in
- Navigation is as standard but you’ll have access to many more journals than usual
- Available until 22 April
Palgrave Macmillan
- The ‘Access All Areas‘ promotion offers free online access to Palgrave Macmillan’s full portfolio of journals spanning the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Business
- Browse journals from the list of subject areas on this page: http://www.palgrave.com/accessallareas
- Available from 1-30 April
NELSON upgrade Sunday 24th February
The software behind the Library’s resource discovery system, NELSON, is being upgraded this weekend.
During the upgrade you will only be able to access NELSON in ‘search’ mode, you will not be able to save items to your eShelf. Additionally, links between NELSON and the library catalogue may be temporarily unavailable.
A message displaying this information has been posted on the NELSON home page.
Following the upgrade you will have further options to personalise your search results by discipline and the ability to refine a search by including and excluding multiple topic areas.
Image credit: Compass by Roland Urbanek
Assessing journal quality – alternatives to JCR
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is the definitive source for journal impact factors, probably the most widely recognised quality indicators for journals. But what do you do if your subject area is not well covered by JCR or you would like to see some alternative metrics?
There are a number of tools available. These use a combination of citation analysis, peer review and ranking algorithms to facilitate the evaluation of journals in a range of subject areas.
Renewing your Zetoc Alert
FAQ: My Zetoc Alert is about to expire. How can I renew it?
Anybody that uses Zetoc Alerts to keep up to date with research literature will know that once a year these expire and have to be renewed. This is a straightforward process and simply involves clicking on one of the links given in the reminder email.
The trick is to click on the correct link.
UON Graduate School Blog 