30 tips for successful academic research and writing

Choosing something that you are passionately interested in to research is a great first step on the road to successful academic writing but it can be difficult to keep the momentum going. Deborah Lupton explains how old-fashioned whiteboards and online networking go hand-in-hand, and advices [sic] when it is time to just ‘make a start’ or go for a bike ride. 

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/11/28/lupton-30-tips-writing/

OA in Argentina

Interesting article which relates to the presentation at Berlin 10 OA conference by Silvia Nakano of the Science & Technology National Directorate of Physical Resources,Argentina.  She spoke about the Latin American experiences of institutional collaboration for accessibility and visibility of scientific and academic output

 

 Prospect for Development of Open Access in Argentina

From J of Acad Librarianship:

Abstract

This perspective article presents an overview of the Open Access movement in Argentina, from a global and regional (Latin American) context. The article describes the evolution and current state of initiatives by examining two principal approaches to Open Access in Argentina: golden and green roads. The article will then turn its attention to: the support that Open Access receives from governmental sources; collaboration with international projects; and the perspective of Argentine authors regarding Open Access and self-archiving. It concludes with a reflection on the outlook, the main barriers and opportunities for Open Access in Argentina.

Teaching Library Internet Workshops

Teaching Library Internet Workshops a free guide from UC Berkeley Library

Academic Libraries and Research Data Services

ACRL has released a new research report, “Academic Libraries and Research Data Services: Current Practices and Plans for the Future” to provide a baseline assessment of the current state of and future plans for research data services in academic libraries.... Academic libraries may be ideal centers for research data service activities on campuses, providing unique opportunities for academic libraries to become even more active participants in the knowledge creation cycle in their institution."

South African open access policy - a comparative overview

South African open access policy - a comparative overview

  Paper presented by Eve Gray at a Wits University research policy seminar on 9 November 2012. 

At the end of the day, the university signed the Berlin Declaration and announced that it would be adopting open access as a core component of its new research strategy."

Heather Joseph: Evaluating Scholarly Impact in Light of Emerging Models of Scholarly Communication

Well worth listening to!

The AU Library hosts Heather Joseph, Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), for a presentation on emerging trends in measuring scholarly impact, especially in relation to the open access movement. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system.

Fighting back against the Big Deals: a success story from the UK

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17065291&WT.mc_id=journaltocalerts


Purpose – The paper aims to describe the development of an alternative to the Big Deals that was deployed successfully in negotiations with Elsevier and Wiley for the 2012 settlement.



Design/methodology/approach – This is a descriptive account of the alternative plan.



Findings – There is a credible alternative to the Big Deals offered by most commercial academic publishers. Even if not implemented, the model provides a very useful tool to understanding the relationship between cost per use and document supply.



Originality/value – The paper provides an account of the first time that a practical alternative to the Big Deals has been developed, leading to a successful negotiating conclusion.

Easy paper collaboration for scientists

Launching very soon!

Mendeley: Teaching scholarly communication and collaboration through social networking ( Review )

Would anyone in the RU Library like to offer to investigate Mendeley (Debbie is presently testing Zotero)?

Purpose: This paper aims to highlight the productivity and collaborative features of Mendeley, a reference management tool, as well as recommendations on how Mendeley can be incorporated into an information literacy program. Design/methodology/approach: Results from a literature review and feedback from students and faculty were used to provide background for this paper. Mendeley's features and potential benefits to librarians and researchers are discussed. Findings: Feedback from students and faculty who use Mendeley are very positive owing to its productivity and social networking and collaboration features. The literature highlights Mendeley's usefulness in the context of citation management software. Practical implications: The paper provides useful tips and best practices for integrating Mendeley into information literacy sessions and workshops for students and faculty. The paper also discusses how teaching Mendeley can facilitate scholarly communication between researchers and broaden the role of librarians on campus. Originality/value: The paper shows that Mendeley enables higher level information literacy by helping users focus on locating and organizing information and spend less time on citation details. Mendeley's social networking features are compatible with emerging work practices, facilitating collaboration among researchers through group's functions and open sharing of information through groups and publication lists.

Changes in scholarly communication

New opportunities in scholarly communication - How the internet is transforming scholarship

What is Open Access? - What's in it for me?

Stop Being a People-Pleaser - Harvard Business Review

If you've always felt a compulsion to meet everyone else's needs before your own, it's hard to imagine being different. People-pleasing is not only what you do, but a strong part of who you believe you are. In some jobs,...

Now E-Textbooks Can Report Back on Students’ Reading Habits

some interesting discussion

E-Textbooks Can Report Back on Students’ Reading Habits

 Data mining is creeping into every aspect of student life—classrooms, advising, socializing. Now it’s hitting textbooks, too.
CourseSmart, which sells digital versions of textbooks by big publishers, announced on Wednesday a new tool to help professors and others measure students’ engagement with electronic course materials.
When students use print textbooks, professors can’t track their reading. But as learning shifts online, everything students do in digital spaces can be monitored, including the intimate details of their reading habits.

As Libraries Go Digital, Sharing of Data Is at Odds With Tradition of Privacy

Millions of people now share what they're reading through social-networking sites like Facebook, or smaller services including Goodreads and LibraryThing. They're accustomed to the personalized recommendations that Amazon provides by tracking customers' buying and browsing habits.  Libraries are following suit. They're beginning to share data to build tools for recommending and discovering books.

http://chronicle.com/article/As-Libraries-Go-Digital/135514/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Marketing the academic library with online social network advertising

Findings: In line with an earlier study, the results provide further support for the view that social network advertising has the potential to be a cost-effective means of marketing academic libraries. It was also found that advertising strategies that draw upon the social features of Facebook were more effective than traditional approaches.

From bibliometrics to altmetrics: A changing scholarly landscape

....librarians are in a key position to take the lead in bolstering researchers’ knowledge of current trends—and concerns—in the new art and science impact measurement......

An Overview of the Textbook Market and Strategies to Reduce Costs

An Overview of theTextbook Market and Strategies to Reduce Costs   

OmniTouch: Wearable Multitouch Interaction Everywhere

Today’s mobile computers provide omnipresent access to information, creation and communication facilities. It is undeniable that they have forever changed the way we work, play and interact. However, mobile interaction is far from solved. Diminutive screens and buttons mar the user experience, and otherwise prevent us from realizing their full potential.

Pick n Pay launches Kobo e reader

Pick n Pay launches Kobo e reader: Pick n Pay has announced that it is launching the Kobo e-reader in selected stores.

Supporting Digital Scholarship: Bibliographic Control, Library Cooperatives and Open Access Repositories

Calhoun, Karen (2012) Supporting Digital Scholarship: Bibliographic Control, Library Cooperatives and Open Access Repositories. Research libraries have entered an era of discontinuous change—a time when the cumulated assets of the past do not guarantee future success. Bibliographic control, cooperative cataloguing systems and library catalogues have been key assets in the research library service framework for supporting scholarship. This chapter examines these assets in the context of changing library collections, new metadata sources and methods, open access repositories, digital scholarship and the purposes of research libraries. Advocating a fundamental rethinking of the research library service framework, the chapter concludes with a call for research libraries to collectively consider new approaches that could strengthen their roles as essential contributors to emergent, network-level scholarly research infrastructures.

Hat Tip: Open Access Explained!

What is open access? Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen take us through the world of open access publishing and explain just what it's all about.

"One of the clearest, concise, and entertaining explanations of open access I have seen. Check-out this animated comic, Open Access Explained! narrated by open access advocates Nick Shockey, Director of Student Advocacy at SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and Jonathan Eisen, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology at University of California, Davis on the PHD Comics website.
The piece focuses on open access to publically-funded scientific research. I wished for more of a nod to Humanities scholarship and the unique challenges of our disciplines relating to open access. But the explanation still translates very well. For example, this excerpt—I believe it is Jonathan Eisen speaking—could just as easily be applied to Humanities scholarship:.: