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ResearchGate - warning re copyright issues

Please note: (This was sent to staff and postgrads by the Research Office :

 

The ResearchGate (RG) network https://www.researchgate.net was founded in 2008 and currently has over 3 million researchers registered. 450 Rhodes University affiliated researchers are amongst these.  It is possible to upload the full-text of articles to an RG profile and many researchers have done this.

This is problematic if authors make available the published version of journal articles in infringement of publishers’ copyright regulations. To ascertain whether an article may  legally be deposited in RG it is essential that authors check publisher copyright policies.  This can be done on the Sherpa/Romeo website which summarises permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

The Rhodes Research Office has recently heard that authors may be sued by publishers if their uploads to RG are in breach of copyright.

Please share this information with your postgraduate students, many of whom have RG profiles.

Please remember that your research (articles, conference papers, etc.) can be shared with others via the Rhodes Institutional Repository http://eprints.ru.ac.za/.

For more information on RG read the following:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Does_ResearchGates_promotion_of_user_author_self-archiving_help_or_harm_the_cause_of_open_access_publishing

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_is_ResearchGate_dealing_with_copyright_issues_when_posting_our_papers

Apple Found Guilty of eBook Price Fixing; Amazon Cackles, Twirls Moustache

Apple Found Guilty of eBook Price Fixing; Amazon Cackles, Twirls Moustache
Why the Apple Ebook Verdict Could Make You Love Libraries Again

Why open access makes no sense (????)

Guardian article: "There can be no such thing as free access to academic research, says Robin Osborne in Debating Open Access essays – research is a process that universities teach and charge for."

Let’s hide our research from unworthy people ("The Guardian recently published an article by Professor Robin Osborne under the controversial title “Why open access makes no sense”. The author sets out to prove that there is no such thing as free access to academic research, and having caused quite a stir, I think it is worth commenting.")

Students Prefer Print but Not Books for Serious Academic Reading

The study, “Student Reading Practices in Print and Electronic Media,” to be published in September 2014 in the journal College & Research Libraries, tracked the reading habits of 17 CUNY students through diary entries, interviews, and discussion groups over the course of two weeks.

The research found that they almost always used e-book readers, mobile devices, and tablet computers for nonacademic reading but relied on paper printouts for academic reading.

Book Allocations in a University Library: An Evaluation of Multiple Formulas

This article describes an academic library's process of running multiple allocation models in order to find one that best suits the needs of the institution. The authors employed four methods: percentage-based, factor analysis, weighted multiple-variable, and circulation-based in order to inform the redistribution of book (print and electronic) funds. A comparison of the models revealed very different results. The final consensus of Hofstra University's Reference and Collection Development Department was to employ a circulation-based allocation model to redistribute funds, while also using subject specialist experience to adjust this redistribution

Making It Their Own: Creating Meaningful Opportunities for Student Employees in Academic Library Services

Making It Their Own: Creating Meaningful Opportunities for Student Employees in Academic Library Services

Library patrons have many requests for library services and resources. With limited budgets and library staff who are already stretched thin, how can academic libraries ever hope to understand and meet the growing variety of patron needs and desires? This article will outline a successful strategy of utilizing students to pitch, pilot, and implement academic library services as well as gather feedback from fellow students about their expectations for the academic library.

Tablet prices are plunging

Tablet prices are plunging amid a flood of new devices and cutthroat competition for market share. 

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/hardware/tablet-prices-are-plunging-1.1545248#.Ud6DVqw7aVo

Microsoft's mobile strategy: Where Android, iOS and Windows 8.1 fit in

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-mobile-strategy-where-android-ios-and-windows-8-1-fit-in-7000017352/?s_cid=e540&ttag=e540

This is not your dad's Microsoft. In the last few months Microsoft has been refocusing on Web services and devices instead of its mobile operating systems, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 (WP8). Neither OS have been cutting the mustard in the market. Moving forward, I see Microsoft addressing its mobile OS issues in two ways.

Wanting to buy a smartphone?

How to buy a smartphone: A guide for newbies

Believe it or not there are still a lot of folks walking around with a flip phone. These folks have never owned a smartphone, but many are feeling pressure to grab one. Here's a simple guide to catch up with the rest of us...

http://www.zdnet.com/how-to-buy-a-smartphone-a-guide-for-newbies-7000017163/?s_cid=e004&ttag=e004

Bridging the gap between academia and Wikipedia

Jisc and Wikimedia UK are collaborating on a project to bring the academic world and Wikipedia closer together. This will create opportunities for researchers, educators, and the general public to contribute to the world's freely available knowledge.

Librarians' Views of Academic Library Support for Scholarly Publishing: An Every-day Perspective

 Some of the topics discussed in the article: (from J of academic librarianship)

• How do academic librarians perceive their role in relation to the research community in their everyday work? 
• How is it possible to make academic librarians active in the processes surrounding academic research
• more integrated view of the different parts of the university in that researchers and non-academic staff are tied closer to each other
• academic libraries ... today are expected to take a larger responsibility for the publication output of the university, primarily through the establishment and support of open institutional archives and Open Access journals. In keeping these archives, insight and participation in the scholarly processes are required in order to keep researchers aware of the opportunities offered by the university library to make research results public through internal, open channels.
• a gap between attitudes and action, where positive attitudes about Open Access are confronted by the rigidity of the university system and its library practice.
• basic tension between the traditional “reactive” academic librarian and the “proactive” librarian expected to meet contemporary demands
• the importance of the pedagogical discourse that has dominated academic libraries for the last decade is now decreasing. Instead a combination of traditional bibliographic work and development of engagement in researchers' publication strategies is emerging. Even though there are several ways of looking at the practical solutions for the library's engagement in digital repository development and Open Access publishing, there is a clear sense that this will be of increasing significance for academic libraries in years to come.
• increasing importance of bibliometric research evaluation indicators both locally and nationally is felt to be a factor which will influence both the position of academic libraries in organizational settings and the practical work for librarians, not least in relation to the digital institutional repositories, where bibliographic records must be developed and maintained.
• With new prerequisites for scholarly publication through peer-reviewed Open Access journals and institutionally based digital repositories, academic librarians now feel that there are opportunities emerging both in relation to the individual researchers, research groups and to the universities as a whole. Turning focus from information seeking tutorials towards publication support and strategy formulation makes the academic libraries, also at relatively small universities as those in this study, active parts of the development in scholarly knowledge production.

Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast: Victor Henning on the future of Mendeley

Tech Weekly Podcast: Victor Henning on the future of Mendeley

This week Charles Arthur meets Victor Henning co-founder and CEO of Mendeley the academic and research focused online network. Mendeley was recently purchased by the publisher of the Lancet, Reed Elsevier and Victor discusses the advantages offered by the historic science publisher for Mendeley the online upstart.

Handbook of Academic Writing for Librarians

ACRL announces the publication of Handbook of Academic Writing for Librarians, written by Christopher V. Hollister of the University at Buffalo.

 

 

The Handbook of Academic Writing for Librarians is the most complete reference source available for librarians who need or desire to publish in the professional literature. The handbook addresses issues and requirements of scholarly writing and publishing in a start-to-finish manner. Standard formats of scholarly writing are addressed: research papers, articles, and books. 

More news about Google Glass

Google Glass apps for enterprises coming by early 2014

A company that specializes in Google apps is developing a series of enterprise applications for Google Glass that should be available late this year or early 2014.

Professors Envision Using Google Glass in the Classroom

from CHE
New digital eyewear from Google, which features a built-in Webcam and the ability to display e-mail messages and other information, has sparked a mix of curiosity and skepticism in the popular press, but several professors are rushing to try it out in their teaching and research—and early reviews are mixed.

Commerce & Law Library Festival display 2013

 The Commerce Library celebrates the Grahamstown National Arts Festival 2013. Please take a look and enjoy our display...

Photos: Anne Warring

G8 Open Data Charter: why it matters

The international community today pledged to open up government data to more scrutiny than ever before as they signed an Open Data Charter for the first time. Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt explains why every citizen will benefit.