Library Research

ResearchGate is the world’s largest professional network for scientists and researchers with more than 1.3million members. With access to over 45million abstracts (not full text!), Researchers can search through 7 of the largest databases and millions of smaller ones simultaneously, including PubMED, Cornwell University & CiteSeer; by using the literature search at http://www.researchgate.net/literature

They also have the largest science and research specific job board in the world at http://www.researchgate.net/jobs/research/?nav=jobs

As well as the largest Science and Research Conference Board at http://www.researchgate.net/conferences/related/?nav=conferences

They also featured in the New York Times on Tuesday; the article is really good for explaining what ResearchGate is all about! http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html

The Digital Development and Information Literacy team have produced a new module for researchers. It is called Your digital footprint and also contains useful information for researchers with the REF coming up. It looks at things like journal citation reports, h-index, Eiganfactor and much more. It is at http://blackboard.gcal.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/library/PILOT/serve_home2.html

It is very important that you consider ethical approval as early as possible in your research. Here are some web sites which may be helpful.

• GCU research ethics page
• GCU research ethics booklet
• Code of good practice in research
• Research ethics – appendices (Word document)
• School of Engineering and Computing information (SEC)
  School of Law and Social Sciences
  School of Life Sciences

http://ht.ly/4lo5V

This jointly commissioned RIN and RLUK report presents the findings of a systematic study of the value of the services that libraries in the UK provide to researchers, and of the contributions that libraries from a wide range of institutions make to institutional research performance. The aim was to identify the key characteristics of library provision to support research in successful UK universities and departments

The Institute for Applied Health Research supports Open Access publication of research articles. To encourage publication of high quality research papers in the area of Health (where no publication costs are recoverable from the research project) the University has taken out membership of BioMed Central.

BioMed Central is a Science, Technology and Medicine publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All original research articles published by BioMed Central are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication.

All research articles receive rapid and thorough peer review. Many journals are citation-tracked and already have Impact Factors. Authors publishing with BioMed Central retain the copyright to their work under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

The University has taken out a prepay membership of £10,000 in the first instance which is likely to cover the publication costs of 10 articles. Simply go to the BioMed Central website at http://www.biomedcentral.com/ and register through My Biomed Central.

To publish an article, click on “Submit a Manuscript” and follow instructions. If your article is accepted for publication, you will be asked for a membership ID which is IN-1160227.

About to leave GCU and worried about all the references you have collected? We now have the RefWorks alumni service which will allow you to keep using RefWorks after you leave. Instructions on how to set up your free account are on our RefWorks FAQ page.

The Scientific American editorial team moved to join their NPG (Nature Publishing Group) colleagues in New York in July 2009.  Scientific American and NPG are both part of Macmillan Publishers Ltd and the move brings 2 major publishing arms together.

An immediate consequence is a new subscription model, moving rates for the Scientific American magazine more in line with academic journal pricing.  The result is a storm of controversy and some cancellations.

Read an interview with Steven Inchcoombe, Nature Publishing Group’s Managing Director and President of Scientific American in the Library journal in which he doesn’t mistake a general interest magazine for a peer-reviewed journal!

For information, our subscription to the magazine inflated by 551% for 2010.

 Image by Chris Sharp

Read the new guide produced by the Research Information Network (RIN) on the process of peer review – what it is, how it works, and why there might be better ways to do it in future.

Peer Review: a guide for researchers

Did you know that you have a team of subject librarians who will be happy to help and support you through the course of your research project. Why not get in touch to chat about your project?

We have a web page with useful links and hints to help you with your research. It is at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/subject/soc/research.html We’d love to know what you think of it, and to hear if you have any suggestions for changes or additions.