Try BrowZine!

Have you yet tried your hand at "BrowZine"?!   No need to knit your brow over efforts to stay current with your favorite research journals.  Download the Browzine app for iPad or Android tablet. 

When you download the BrowZine application from the AppStore or Google Play, you will see a list of schools.  Select UW-Madison then enter your NetID and password.  Once installed, you can create a bookshelf of your favorite journals, browse and read articles, and export citation records to compatible citation management tools. 

Brought to you by UW-Madison Libraries, BrowZine is available to all UW-Madison faculty, staff and students. 

Staying Current

How do you stay current with the literature in your field of study or research?  If you find this a challenging prospect, our librarians have the tools to help.

Staying up-to-date with what is happening in your area of research may take several forms.  Are you interested in having browsing access to the most current volume of a favorite journal or magazine?  Or, would you prefer to receive an email message or RSS feed to newly-published research on a topic of interest?  In similar fashion, would you like to know when your published article is cited by other researchers?  Or, do your enjoy reading blogs and current news from News sites and the popular press?

If any and all of these apply to the information you would like to retrieve and your workflow (more on that question of management, below), note that there are open Web resources and library-licensed tools that can serve this process of keeping current.  A selection of these tools and assists are listed, below, by approach or form.

Table of Contents (your favorite or essential journals)

• Browzine (see our previous post)
• Journal TOCs (free, scholarly journal TOCs)
• Database Alerts (via email or RSS)
• Publisher Websites (some offer free TOCs)

Search and Citation Alerts (your area of research interest or by publication)

• Database Alerts (via email or RSS)
• Google Scholar Alerts (via email with Google Account--either to "My Citations" or to a topic search)
• Google Book Alerts (an option as from the Result Type menu)

Blogs, News Media, Website Updates

• Subscribe to feeds using feed readers or Web browser.

Library Guides, Liaisons and Workshops
You do not need to do this alone.  Speak to your librarians for assistance and customization.  Attend a drop-in workshop or do-it-yourself by reading our Web guides.

• Research Guide to Keeping Current in the Literature
• MyUW, Research Tab (Create a customized, browsing access list of your "Favorite Library E-Resources")

Managing the Information you Retrieve
Campus Libraries provide support for several software products for managing your citations and formatting your reference list.  Evaluate these tools and attend a drop-in workshop to explore their features.  The beauty of these tools is that they can communicate well with library-licensed databases making it relatively easy and efficient to move records from database to manager. 

Have any tips and resources to share?  If so, please reply to this post.

BrowZine

Would you like to follow your favorite research journals using your iPad or Android tablet?  If so, try the BrowZine App today!  When you download the BrowZine application from the App Store or Google Play, you will see a list of schools.  Select UW-Madison then enter your NetID and password.  Once installed, you can create a bookshelf of your favorite journals, browse and read articles, and export citation records to compatible citation management tools. 

While not every journal to which UW-Madison Libraries has access will be available, BrowZine does maintain a relationship with many academic publishers (see the list here).  

Brought to you by UW-Madison Libraries, BrowZine is available to all UW-Madison faculty, staff and students.  Enjoy!

Bibliometrics & Citation Analysis

Are people discovering and reading the research I have published? 
Will publishing in a particular journal be advantageous to me as I move forward in my career? 
How can I determine whether the buzz of the social Web has impact?  

If these questions concern you, we invite you to learn more about measuring the impact of your work by reviewing the Libraries’ research guide to Bibliometrics & Citation Analysis.

This guide supplies information and links to both library-licensed and freely-available tools for journal, author and article-level metrics or, in other words, tools that enable researchers and librarians to identify core journals and to assess the visibility and influence of authors and articles published within them. 

There is also growing interest in what we have come to call "altmetrics" that look to measure how social media informs scholarship via formats in which references to research can be tabulated (be they "likes", "shares", "bookmarks", or other).  Visit the tab to "Alternative Metrics" should you wish to explore how these interesting measures may tell a more comprehensive story of your research endeavors.

Librarians are happy to assist you with using these bibliometric tools.  We invite you to schedule an opportunity to consult with us.

Data Management, What is Your Plan?!

Do you need to describe your data-management plan in your NSF grant application? Are you frustrated by losing your research data to disk failure, laptop theft, or record-keeping issues? Would you appreciate an unbiased review of your lab's data-management practices?

If so, then Research Data Services is available to help.

Research Data Services is a team of librarians, IT professionals, and research-support staff who help researchers with answering data-management questions. For instance, the team can help with addressing the following concerns:

• Data-management plans for the NSF and other funding agencies

• Best practices in digital-data preservation and data sharing

• Process and workflow evaluation and assessment

• Connections with helpful experts and other campus resources

Learn more about data management and arrange for individual consultations by visiting the Research Data Services Website.

Get Help, Data Plans for NSF Proposals

Due to requirements announced in January, applicants submitting grant proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) must provide a two-page data management plan detailing the data collected in a project and how it will be managed, preserved, and shared.

If you need help determining: 1) what to include in your data management plan, 2) which data standards and formats are appropriate for your area, and/or 3) methods for documenting and sharing your data, Research Data Services can help. This cross-campus team of data and information specialists offers free consultations on writing data plans, improving your data management practices, and sharing your data.

Those facing NSF deadlines this summer may want to take advantage of these services right away. To get help, visit the Research Data Services site or email its team of campus staff (digitalcuration@lists.wisc.edu).

Print the flyer (PDF).

With thanks to the Research Data Services team for the content of this blog post.

Top 100 Women, Writing and Academia

Continue your reflection upon International Women’s Day (yesterday, March 8) with a review of the accomplishments of 100 women making their way in writing and academia. This list, and reflection upon the contribution of each woman, has been compiled by editors and contributors to the Guardian.

Speak with your librarians should you need assistance locating the texts produced by these remarkable women.

And, visit the Top 100 page for additional content about inspiring women in other fields of endeavor.

Graduate Support Series, Spring 2011

UW-Madison campus libraries have teamed to offer a series of free workshops for graduate students. As each workshop is designed to be a "stand-alone" presentation, students can choose to attend any number of them, in any combination.

Please visit the workshop site or view the flyer (PDF) for the listing of workshops in the series. From "Keeping Current with the Literature" to "Using Patents and Technical Reports"--there is something for you.

Do note date, time and library location. Registration is recommended; register with the GSC (Graduate Student Collaborative).

Putting the Wisconsin Idea Online (Oct 19)

The Wisconsin Idea is the principle that our efforts here, as students and staff, should inform and enrich our communities beyond the university. UW-Madison researchers are now able to fulfill this guiding principle by using the Web to reach Wisconsin residents and an interested audience worldwide.

On October 19, faculty, staff, students and librarians will have an opportunity to discuss efforts to archive and to impart the product of one’s research online.

Visit the site to view the schedule of featured speakers and to submit your registration. Registration for this day-long event is free.

Putting the Wisconsin Idea Online
October 19, 2010 (9:00 AM – 4:00 PM)
Memorial Library Commons (Room 460)

This event coincides with Open Access Week 2010.

Publishing Your Research Article, Guide to Resources

Campus librarians create Research Guides to assist library users with finding recommended databases to the research literature and to other useful information available online in a particular discipline or topic. The guide to "Publishing Your Research Article" supplies information about finding the best journals in which to publish, writing an effective manuscript, retaining rights as an author, and measuring the impact of published research.

Additionally, Steenbock librarians have created other guides to reflect the academic areas that the library serves with its collections--including such disciplines as animal science, consumer science, food science and nutrition, and veterinary medicine, among others.

2009 journal "impact factors" released

The latest annual Journal Citation Reports (JCR) data have been released by Thomson Reuters (formerly ISI):

• Science Edition = data from 7,300+ journals in science and technology
• Social Sciences Edition = data from 2,200+ journals in the social sciences

JCR is one tool for comparing journals, in order to find the most frequently-cited or highest "impact" journals in a field, for example.  It is available only via online annual subscription ($8,704 in 2010), which the UW-Madison Libraries provide.  All of the data come from journal articles published in a given "JCR year." For example, if you select 2009 and choose a particular journal, you will see:

• Number of articles published in the journal in 2009;
• Number of citations to that journal from articles published in 2009;
• Impact Factor calculated from 2009 data; etc.

For more information:

• Measuring the Impact of Your Research

Liaison Services

Have you met your liaison? Summer session can be a good time to get acquainted. Steenbock liaisons serve as principal contacts for each department and program the library supports.

Library liaisons can provide the following services:

• Provide in-depth orientation for new faculty, staff, graduate students, and project and research assistants.

• Assist with library services and policies (e.g., Library Express, faculty runner cards, UW System search and retrieval…),

• Customize email alerts to keep you informed about new articles matching your topic criteria and tables of contents of your favorite journals,

• Provide in-depth reference consultations—at our office or yours--(e.g., help with strategy and database choices, customize your own alerts…),

• Supply customized instructional sessions and course web pages for your students,

• Consult on questions related to publishing your research (e.g., identifying target journals, managing copyright, measuring research impact, open access publishing),

Find liaisons by Department/Program/Center

Find liaisons by Name

Compiling a Lit Review (Life Sciences)

Drop by Steenbock Library this Friday for a workshop designed for those beginning their literature review for a research project, proposal, dissertation, or publication. Specifically, this workshop will focus upon resources and techniques useful for seeking and retrieving the life sciences literature.

Participants will learn the key steps for conducting a search and have an opportunity to explore the core databases that are important for mining the academic literature in these fields.

Compiling a Lit Review in the Life Sciences
Friday, March 12 (noon-1:15 PM)
Room 105, Steenbock Library

No registration is necessary in order to attend; all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff.

NIH Public Access Policy: Submitting Manuscripts and Managing Citations (April 7)

The NIH requires that researchers make their manuscripts available to the public through PubMed Central. Campus librarians are available to help faculty and researchers comply with the NIH Public Access policy. Tuesday’s presentation will focus on the practicalities of submitting manuscripts, managing manuscript citation information and reference numbers, and retrieving reference numbers from PubMed.

Presenters: Julie Schneider, Acting Director, Ebling Library and Emily Wixson, Chemistry/ Biochemistry Reference & Instruction, Chemistry Library

NIH Public Access Policy: Submitting Your Manuscripts and Managing Your Citations for NIH
Day: Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Time: 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Place: Health Sciences Learning Center, Rm. 1345

Open Campus Forum, Copyright

The UW-Madison Libraries are sponsoring an open campus forum to look at how copyright issues have an impact on faculty, staff, and students. The goal of the forum will be to initiate an institutional discussion of the issues surrounding copyright, and to help identify specific examples of how faculty, staff and students encounter copyright challenges in their work.

Forum on Copyright Issues
December 2, (1:00 - 2:30 pm)

Open to all interested individuals.
Memorial Union (TITU)

Although registration for this forum is not required to attend, you can submit a Registration Form.

NIH Policy Workshop (Nov 13)

As of April 7, 2008, all investigators who are funded by NIH must submit their accepted, peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. These manuscripts will be made available to the public on PubMed Central within 12 months of the publication date.

UW-Madison Libraries have agreed to help campus implement this initiative. This workshop will answer questions regarding this policy and supply researchers with assistance for compliance.

For more information, see:

Campus Libraries NIH Public Access Policy page
NIH Public Access Policy site


Complying with the NIH Public Access Policy

Thursday, November 13 (noon-1:00 PM)

Steenbock Library, Room 340

No registration is necessary in order to attend.

Visit the calendar for a listing of other library workshops offered this fall.

Managing Your Copyright?

Scholarly publishing is rapidly changing as new technological developments are made in the publishing industry. To expand the reach of research and to maximize its value in this new environment, many researchers are taking a more active role in managing their copyright. In support of these efforts, the UW-Madison Libraries encourage you to be aware of your rights as an author and can help you to navigate and to manage your copyright.

If you are interested in exploring ways to negotiate these rights, need assistance using the endorsed addendum or have any questions related to issues of fair use or the re-use of materials in your teaching, please contact the Libraries for assistance. Visit the UW-Madison Libraries’ Scholarly Communication and Publishing Web site or contact your library liaison.

Open Access Day (October 14)

October 14th has been named Open Access Day! Libraries, publishers and academic institutions will be using this day to draw attention to the Open Access Movement—a movement that seeks to harness the power of the Internet to advance the unrestricted and altruistic sharing of research with a worldwide community of interested parties who can benefit from and contribute to the development of that research.

Open Access Day is sponsored by SPARC, the Public Library of Science and Students for Free Culture. The day’s events will include a live video webcast at the Memorial Union at 6:00 PM (check TITU for room location).

For an overview of the issues regarding Open Access and how it may impact you, visit the Scholarly Communication & Publishing website.

Dissertation Calculator

Calendar your steps to completing your dissertation. The Dissertation Calculator, available from the CIMC Website (Center for Instructional Materials & Computing), enables you to enter your start and anticipated completion dates to generate a step-by-step plan of action for running a literature search, conducting your research, and beginning the writing process. Each stage of the plan will suggest strategies for successfully completing that stage.

Of related interest, visit the links, below, to guides created by the Graduate School office:

Guide to Preparing Your Master’s Thesis

Guide to Preparing your Doctoral Dissertation

Journals Ranked by Impact (Energy & Fuels)

The Sci-Bytes column from ScienceWatch has recently supplied a table comparing the citation impact of journals in the subject category of energy and fuels during three time periods. Data for the 2007 impact factor has been drawn from the current edition of Journal Citation Reports.

According to Journal Citation Reports, "the journal impact factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past two years have been cited in the JCR year."

Journal Citation Reports can be accessed from the campus libraries' E-Resource Gateway.