The University of Cambridge has joined other institutions around the world in providing its students and researchers with access to SpringerMaterials, a research solution published by Springer Nature for identifying materials and their corresponding properties.
University of Cambridge is the highest ranking institution in the UK, and fourth globally, for materials science, according to the QS World University rankings 2017.
Access to SpringerMaterials will support researchers across the University from Materials Science and Metallurgy, Chemistry, and Physics departments, as well as engineering and other related fields.
SpringerMaterials is the most comprehensive and multidisciplinary collection of materials and chemical properties, curated by materials science experts. It provides extensive coverage of all major topics in materials science and related disciplines, with 290,000+ materials and more 3000+ properties. The platform’s specialised functionalities enable researchers to easily find what they need, analyse and visualise different data types, and integrate these data types into their research workflows.
Laurence Harbige, Database Sales Manager at Springer Nature, said “Myself and other colleagues from the Database Research Group have been working closely with stakeholders at the University of Cambridge to understand their requirements both from a teaching and research perspective and also from the library itself. We had very positive feedback from users following an initial trial and we are pleased to now welcome them on board as new subscribers.”
Researchers and students at the university have actively been using content from the Landolt-Börnstein series for many years. The series is the largest collection of critically evaluated property data in materials science and is just one of six major data sources included in SpringerMaterials. In addition to having access to an expanded data set and functionality specifically designed to work with materials data, an important factor in the decision to use SpringerMaterials was the ability for users to reference original sources, which is supported by the platform.
Evelyn Ramforth, Product Manager for SpringerMaterials at Springer Nature, added “We look forward to working closely with the team at University of Cambridge to support a successful implementation, including providing hands-on training to their librarians and researchers, plus we have plans for a Cambridge Materials Day to share our publishing and data expertise with researchers working in materials science and related fields.”
Yvonne Nobis, Head of Science Information Services at University of Cambridge stated “our University has a high research output in the fields of Materials Science, Physics and Chemistry, and as such the Library was investigating resources to support researchers in these fields. SpringerMaterials was recommended to us by staff and students and so, after a successful trial and positive discussions with the team, we felt confident that we could successfully introduce the solution with their support and maximise ROI for the library.”
