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June 13, 2007
One Million University of Illinois Books to be Digitized by Google
Read my posting on this over at the UI Scholarly Communication News site!
Posted by Katie Newman at 9:47 AM
June 12, 2007
NPG launches Two New Websites: Nature Reports Climate Change and Nature Reports Stem Cells
From Knowledgespeak (June 12)
Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group (NPG), UK, has announced the launch of two new websites - Nature Reports Climate Change and Nature Reports Stem Cells. The Nature Reports sites highlight topical science issues by providing thorough investigative reporting based on peer-reviewed, primary research.
The new websites will report ‘the science behind the news, the news behind the science,’ and explore the social, political and economic implications of the highlighted topic. Users of all levels of expertise, from scientists, journalists and students, to members of the general public, can access the content, a vast majority of which is freely available. Over the coming months, both Nature Reports: Stem Cells and Nature Reports Climate Change hope to develop further with increased community interactions, resources and media.
The topics for discussion in the Nature Reports series were chosen based on the most popular search terms run on Nature.com in 2006. The first in the series- Nature Reports Avian Flu- was launched in March 2007.
Nature news release (pdf).
Posted by Katie Newman at 1:18 PM
June 6, 2007
A Farmer's Perspective on Biotechnology
Art Brandli, who farms in Warroad, Minn., recently wrote an opinion piece in Ag Weekly about his impressions while attending the annual BIO conference, which was held in Boston this year. Some snippets from his report...
The BIO Conference was huge, over 20,000 people from 64 countries and the amount of information nearly overwhelming. One quickly learns how much biotechnology is already used in our everyday lives, and how food and production agriculture is just a small part of the biotech industry.
Michael J Fox was a keynote speaker, stressing the need for the biotechnology industry to continue to innovate and accelerate the translation of basic science into improved therapies for patients.
I had an opportunity to meet a number of people committed to working for greater acceptance of biotechnology in agriculture, including Dr. Clive James, an ag scientist from the UK and former deputy director general at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, where he worked with Dr. Norman Borlaug, “Father of the Green Revolution.” James now heads a nonprofit charitable organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger and poverty in developing countries. James cited FAO projections that world food-production needs to double by 2050, using less water and little more land than today, despite climate change, the increasing focus of cropland for biofuels, and the fact that one-third of the world’s population lacks food security now. He stressed that a successful strategy must have multiple approaches that include population stabilization, improved food distribution systems - and a technology component, a crop improvement strategy that integrates conventional and biotech crop approaches to optimize productivity and that can contribute to food, feed, fiber, and fuel security.
One approach in communicating with consumers, James suggests, is not to refer to “biotech” or “genetically-modified” crops, but simply “bio crops.”
Posted by Katie Newman at 9:58 AM
June 5, 2007
H-Index in Scopus
Scopus now incorporates the h-index as a means to evaluate research performance, including unique graphs that enable users to interpret the value of the h-index by displaying publication and citation trends over time. The H-index is touted as being a objective measure of scientific research productivity.
How to get the H-Index in Scopus:
After performing an author search in Scopus, click on the "citation tracker" button to view the Citation Overview analysis, and then click on the h-graph button to view the graphical representation of the data.
Caveat:
Scopus only includes data for articles published from 1995 to the present. Thus the h-index data from Scopus is not complete for older researchers.
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Read more about the "H-Index, from the Help file in Scopus:
The h-Graph displays the h index for a single author, multiple authors, or a group of selected documents. The h index is based on the highest number of papers included that have had at least the same number of citations. The h index was developed by J.E. Hirsch. Hirsch defines the h index as follows:"A scientist has index h if h of his/her Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np − h) papers have no more than h citations each."
For Example An h-graph for a group of selected documents or selected author(s) with an h index of 12 means that out of the total number of documents selected to produce the graph, 12 of the documents have been cited at least 12 times. Published documents with fewer citations than h, in this case less then 12, are considered, but would not count in the h index.
For more information about the h index, see Hirsch, J.E. "An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output." Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego.
The H-graph includes two lines: h index and the h-Line. The h index line represents the number citations received for each of the articles in descending order. The h-Line represents the number of citations equal to the number of articles.
Posted by Katie Newman at 10:37 AM
Broad Impact: Refreshing Your Statistics Knowledge
Have you discovered Faculty of 1000 Biology, yet? It's a great tool for discovering hidden gems and important papers in particular areas. I like to think of it as a really good student advisory committee that selects, recommends, and critiques the top "must read" articles in all areas of Biology!
Here's a news blurb from BioMed Central, the publisher of F1000:
Five Faculty of 1000 Biology members have recently singled out an Exceptional Broad Impact paper that is of high relevance to researchers in all fields of Biology, as it provides guidance to biologists for navigating the often tricky world of data representation -- in particular the use of error bars."This paper should be read by anyone who is trying to present experimental data graphically." comments David Stephens (University of Bristol, UK), Faculty of 1000 Biology member for Cell Biology.
Andy Groves (House Ear Institute, USA), a Faculty of 1000 Biology member for Developmental Biology goes on to say "This wonderful article clearly explains how experimental variation is measured and displayed, and describes how different kinds of error bars can mean very different things. This paper is a must read for every scientist who thinks that triplicate plates from a single experiment counts as n=3 !!!!!"
"Personally, I have filed the pdf in a safe place, and I plan to consult it every time I send a graph for publication." concludes Etienne Joly (CNRS, France), a Faculty of 1000 Biology Member for Immunology.
The Faculty of 1000 Biology structure makes it possible to identify papers of broad interest, irrespective of the journal in which they are published. Go to the Faculty of 1000 Biology website to see the full comments of all the evaluating Faculty Members on this Exceptional Broad Impact paper.
Posted by Katie Newman at 10:21 AM