Because I will be out of town at a conference, there will be no Librarian Office Hours in Wallace 342-A this Thursday (tomorrow). I will, however, be back NEXT Thursday, available to answer all your questions from 3-5 p.m. in Wallace 342-A.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
No office hours this week!
Because I will be out of town at a conference, there will be no Librarian Office Hours in Wallace 342-A this Thursday (tomorrow). I will, however, be back NEXT Thursday, available to answer all your questions from 3-5 p.m. in Wallace 342-A.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Library products aid in promotion and tenure!
These databasees, Web of Science and JCR can also provide valuable information for students just beginning research in a particular discipline or area of research. JCR relates a journal's impact factor and a general overview of the landscape of literature in a particular field, while Web of Science offers cited reference searching and other ways to track an author's influence within his field of research.
Although these databases do have limitations (not every journal that is published is listed in JCR, for example), they can provide a great deal of valuable information for both the new researcher and the more experienced faculty member applying for tenure.
Monday, September 27, 2010
FARQ: EndNote Styles
It seems like several upper-level HNFE classes are using EndNote pretty heavily, and there's one question in particular that I have seen a lot of lately:
What if the journal that I need isn't showing up in EndNote when I go to select my style?
There's actually several things going on with this question. First of all, going to the journal's website and checking the "information for authors" section should let you know what style the journal that you're interested in submtting to uses. The journal may simply use the JAMA style, or another style that is already in EndNote. If, however, you check and see that the style used by the journal uses a style slightly different from any style already in EndNote, then you will need to do a bit of extra work.
A good example of this sort of situation is JADA: Journal of the American Dietetic Association. On this journal's "Information for Authors" page, we discover that JADA uses a slight permutation of the AMA Manual of Style. Because of this slight permutation, you would be unable to use the JAMA style to cite information for a paper that you intend to submit to this journal. So, what do you do now?
Basically, the EndNote website offers "output style" files for all kinds of journals that do not use the "basic" citation styles. This database of output style files is available: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp. Here, you can search for any particular journal (EndNote offers more than 4500 distinct bibliographic styles at no extra cost--essentially free for you) that you may be interested in submitting to.
 |
| A brief look at the EndNote output styles database |
Once you find the output style file for your journal, you'll need to download it (the file will be a .ens file), and then make sure that the file is placed in the "Styles" folder of the EndNote program files. The EndNote program files are usually housed in your main hard disk drive. On my computer, I can find my EndNote style folder in the following location: C:\Program Files\EndNote X4\Styles.
 |
| This may look different on a Mac, but the idea is essentially the same |
Once you move the newly downloaded EndNote output style file to this location, you should see the style in the style drop-down menu the next time you go to EndNote. If you already had EndNote open, you shouldn't even need to close and reopen in order to see the new output style file.
Voila! You should now be able to write a paper using whatever completely obscure style your journal demands.
Voila! You should now be able to write a paper using whatever completely obscure style your journal demands.
Of course, you can always contact me if you have any questions!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
A Post for Sustainability Week
Recently, we created a group of 7 Sustainability Research Guides. With these guides, we point out databases, websites, books, and other resources relating specifically to:
- Climate Change
- Green Campus Initiatives
- Life Cycle Analysis
- Local Food
- Renewable or Sustainable Energy
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Sustainable Building and Design
Also, if you're interested in researching or simply perusing information related to sustainability, you may want to check out the following subscription databases offered through University Libraries:
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Good news for Mac users!
EndNote X4 for Mac has arrived! You can now download it from the VT network software site, read all about it on the VT Libraries site, and watch a video about "What's New in EndNote X4" from the EndNote folks.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Open Access...is good?
Okay, I am a little bit obsessed with my Google Reader, where I receive updates from all of my favorite blogs. I subscribe to many blogs on the topics of science, libraries, travel, fashion, and food. On my science and library blogs, I often receive interesting updates about what's going on with information sharing, scholarly publishing, and other related items. Many times, I will turn around and re-blog about the topics I find particularly interesting and that I think you might, too. One of my blogs, Science Intelligence and InfoPros recently posted results from 2nd Conference on Scholarly Publishing (Prague, August 2010). These results show that most scientists believe that:
If you've visited the Recommended Resources page, you'll see an entire list of open access databases, including PubMed Central, BioMed Central, Directory of Open Access Journals, and PLoS (Public Library of Science). But what, exactly, is open access, and why is it good for science?
Peter Suber, a scholar of scholarly communications, provides a great overview of open access here: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm. He writes that open access resources are those that are online, free of charge, and free of most copyright restrictions. This means, of course, that the information is more accessible, since it does not come with the hefty price tag that many journals and databases have. Because of this, information in open access journals can be more influential, and have a greater impact on literature and practice, if it is not limited to the group of people able to pay for it.
At the 2nd Conference on Scholarly Publishing, the reported findings included that:
Of course, one of the perceived weaknesses of open access appears right in its name: open access is open. While many open access journals do utilize the peer review process, the idea of a freely available journal makes many researchers a bit nervous. In my post on the peer review process, I mention a few of the ideas that are involved in the journal-vetting process: politics, prestige, and authority. Since open access has been around for awhile, many researchers are becoming more comfortable with the idea of it; however, the prestige factor is one that still discourages some researchers from fully backing (and therefore, publishing in) open access journals.
People have been conducting research about open access journals, their usage, and their impact for about the past decade. A detailed bibliography of studies conducted about open access journals can be found here. Getting back to the original point of this post, many of these studies support what was found at the 2nd Conference on Scholarly Publishing: that open access journals are good for science. Interested in more information about OA? Visit the SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) website to get information about authors rights, guidelines, policies, and more!
Open access is good for science!
Peter Suber, a scholar of scholarly communications, provides a great overview of open access here: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm. He writes that open access resources are those that are online, free of charge, and free of most copyright restrictions. This means, of course, that the information is more accessible, since it does not come with the hefty price tag that many journals and databases have. Because of this, information in open access journals can be more influential, and have a greater impact on literature and practice, if it is not limited to the group of people able to pay for it.
At the 2nd Conference on Scholarly Publishing, the reported findings included that:
- 2/3 of all OA journals are Science, Technology, or Medicine-related
- 3/4 of all OA articles are Science, Technology, or Medicine-related
- Overall, the OA model improves scholarly communication and accelerates science
Of course, one of the perceived weaknesses of open access appears right in its name: open access is open. While many open access journals do utilize the peer review process, the idea of a freely available journal makes many researchers a bit nervous. In my post on the peer review process, I mention a few of the ideas that are involved in the journal-vetting process: politics, prestige, and authority. Since open access has been around for awhile, many researchers are becoming more comfortable with the idea of it; however, the prestige factor is one that still discourages some researchers from fully backing (and therefore, publishing in) open access journals.
People have been conducting research about open access journals, their usage, and their impact for about the past decade. A detailed bibliography of studies conducted about open access journals can be found here. Getting back to the original point of this post, many of these studies support what was found at the 2nd Conference on Scholarly Publishing: that open access journals are good for science. Interested in more information about OA? Visit the SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) website to get information about authors rights, guidelines, policies, and more!
Friday, September 17, 2010
New Dissertation & Thesis Database
University Libraries recently acquired the Dissertations & Theses by ProQuest database, which offers access to over 2.7 million citations and more than 1.2 million full text dissertations and theses. Documents in this database go back as far as 1861, and offers many valuable searching tools such as a controlled subject listing and hyper-linking of authors and institutions.
A quick search in the "Nutrition" subject area yielded 12,373 dissertations and theses. Aside from being great sources for literature reviews and bibliographies, the dissertations and theses in this database offer wonderful examples of work that has already been done in this particular field, if you're just starting your research for a dissertation or thesis.
Of course, to see samples of dissertations and these written right here at Virginia Tech, don't forget about our Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Library, which holds 18,362 documents from the various departments at the Unviersity. If you come across a dissertation or thesis from another school that is not available through the new Dissertations & Theses database, simply request it through Interlibrary Loan.
As always, just let me know if you have any questions!
Of course, to see samples of dissertations and these written right here at Virginia Tech, don't forget about our Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Library, which holds 18,362 documents from the various departments at the Unviersity. If you come across a dissertation or thesis from another school that is not available through the new Dissertations & Theses database, simply request it through Interlibrary Loan.
As always, just let me know if you have any questions!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)