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MOBIUS Libraries Increase Number of E-books Available for Patrons with EBSCO eBook™ Subscriptions

For the first time, people in Missouri can access more than 138,000 unique e-book titles at 59 MOBIUS member libraries after MOBIUS recently purchased EBSCO eBook subscription packages from EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO).

The subscription provides quality information resources to all ages and levels of users from kindergarten to college and beyond with Academic, Community Colleges, Public Schools, K-8, High School and Medical collections. The subscription gives 59 MOBIUS member libraries unlimited simultaneous user access to a large selection of multidisciplinary EBSCO eBook titles covering a wide range of subject matter, including:

·         Art

·         Business and Economics

·         Cooking

·         Crafts and Hobbies

·         Education

·         Family

·         Health and Fitness

·         History

·         Language and Literature

·         Medical Specialties

·         Political Science

·         Recreation and Leisure

·         Religion

·         Self-Help

·         Social Science

·         Technology and Engineering

New titles are added regularly and feature a growing selection of frontlist and award-winning titles from leading publishers. Because the eBooks are searchable through the familiar EBSCOhost® interface, users can discover relevant eBook titles alongside other EBSCO databases, find the same intuitive search features and tools and enjoy a simple download process.

MOBIUS Executive Director Donna Bacon sees the addition of the eBook collections as another way MOBIUS is transforming library services for the people of Missouri. “E-books are becoming more and more popular and by purchasing these EBSCO eBook subscription packages, our member libraries will be able to offer their patrons an easy way to find and access the content they want.”

Annual subscription is one of the ways EBSCO enables libraries to add e-books to their collection. Libraries are also offered a growing number of purchase and lease options as well as patron driven options. E-books are available on an individual basis as well as in Subject Sets, Featured Collections and Custom Collections. EBSCO eBooks represents a deep collection of e-book content that is accessible via a variety of devices. EBSCO eBooks are provided with no markups and no fees and can be ordered through the EBSCOhost® Collection Manager, YBP’s GOBI3 or Ingram’s OASIS, allowing libraries more freedom to make purchasing decisions. More information about EBSCO eBooks is available at: www.ebscohost.com/ebooks.

Business and Finance E-books from Euromoney Now Available via EBSCO eBook

An agreement between EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) and Euromoney adds more than 65 business and finance titles to EBSCO’s extensive collection of e-books. Euromoney e-books cover various markets within business and finance and will appeal to a variety of professionals including bankers, lawyers, government officials, treasurers, accountants and fund managers.

E-books from Euromoney help readers assess problems and issues, provide solutions, offer practical advice and include case studies and glossaries. Notable titles within the collection include: Syndicated Lending (new 6th edition), Aircraft Financing (4th edition), Project Financing (8th edition), Shipping Finance (3rd edition), Encyclopedia of Debt Finance (2nd edition) and Credit Analysis of Financial Institutions (3rd edition).

Euromoney e-books cover all the major business and finance markets including:

·         capital markets/debt

·         corporate finance

·         derivatives

·         fund management & investment

·         hedge funds

·         Islamic finance

·         law, tax, accountancy and audit

·         leasing and asset finance

·         math

·         private equity and venture capital

·         project, trade and commodity finance

·         risk management and company insolvency business advice

·         structured finance

Users will have a variety of acquisition options for building and growing their collection of Euromoney e-books via EBSCO eBooks™. Options include ownership with unlimited users, three users and one user or a short-term loan option. EBSCO eBooks have no markups or fees.

EBSCO eBooks offers over 400,000 e-books and audiobooks. EBSCO proactively acquires new content in critical areas, based on the dynamic needs of libraries. Accessing the EBSCOhost platform for e-books and audiobooks saves librarians training time and adds a well-known search platform to the end user’s experience. Allowing end users to search for e-books and audiobooks along with their EBSCOhost database content improves the discoverability of library collections. Lowering the cost for libraries makes the decision to focus on or add to e-book and audiobook collections easier and more cost-effective.

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EBSCO has also made adding e-books and audiobooks easier with EBSCOhost® Collection Manager (ECM). ECM provides the resources librarians need to build and manage their collections. Customers may also order their e-books and audiobooks on EBSCOhost via YBP, OASIS and Baker & Taylor.

Elsevier articles on ScienceDirect and datasets in the ORNL DAAC data repository now reciprocally linked

Elsevier announced its implementation of reciprocal linking between Earth Science content on ScienceDirect and related data sets of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Tennessee (ORNL).

The ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC), which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, US, provides facilities for archiving, discovery and accessibility of biogeochemical dynamics data. Research datasets deposited at the ORNL DAAC are now automatically linked to relevant articles in Elsevier journals available on ScienceDirect using DOIs, and vice versa.

This fruitful cooperation between Elsevier and the ORNL DAAC promotes the flow of data into trusted archives and supports long-term storage, wide availability and preservation of research data. Interconnecting journal articles and relevant data serves the needs of researchers and funding agencies by diminishing the loss of data and helps researchers find data that is necessary to reproduce results from the literature.

Robert Cook, ORNL DAAC Chief Scientist and member of ORNL’s Climate Change Science Institute said, “The way researchers work has dramatically changed with the developments of the Internet and new computer technology. Linking data to the research article is an important matching advancement in digital publications. Now readers will be able to discover and access the complete data products that are used in the article they are reading. Previously, readers only had access to the data presented in tables and figures in the article.”

Bethan Keall, Publishing Director for Energy and Earth Sciences at Elsevier said, “We are delighted to be able to offer authors and readers the opportunity to seamlessly link their published article to the underlying data with one easy click and are proud to work together with the ORNL DAAC on this initiative. It is through collaborations such as this one that we recognize the value of research data for science, and help make it easier for researchers to find relevant data sets and present them in the right context.”

This type of linking between articles and data is one of the pillars of Article of the Future, Elsevier’s on-going program to improve the format of the scientific article.

Thomson Reuters Journals Citation Reports Announce Inaugural Impact Factor for MRS Communications

Impact Factors Increase for Journal of Materials Research and MRS Bulletin

Materials Research Society and Cambridge University Press announce that MRS Communications received its first impact factor (IF) of 1.250, based on just one issue. Also notable – the journal achieved this ranking in its first year of eligibility and within two years of its launch.

In addition, the Journal of Materials Research and MRS Bulletin have increased their respective IFs. The IF for the Journal of Materials Research rose to 1.713 and the IF for MRS Bulletin, one of the most widely recognized and highly respected publications in advanced materials research, increased to 5.024.

The IF is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a specific journal has been cited in a particular year or period. It helps recognize journals of key importance in their subject area and is one of the evaluation tools provided by Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports®.

Launched in 2011 by the Materials Research Society and Cambridge University Press, MRS Communications was the first journal of its kind to establish future directions for the broad materials science community via Prospectives articles. The journal, attracting Open Access and traditional submissions, brings together researchers and professionals from the full range of materials fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and engineering, to identify and report on trends in research.

The inaugural Editor-in-Chief of MRS Communications, Peter F. Green, commented: “We are very pleased to see MRS Communications receive its first impact factor. This is an important milestone for MRS Communications, which was already selected for inclusion in various other Thomson Reuters indices. With this early achievement of recognition since its launch in the fall of 2011, we are looking forward to important contributions this materials journal will continue to make to the field of materials science.”

Simon Ross, Managing Director for Cambridge Journals, added: “In 2011 our aim for MRS Communications was to make it the primary journal where material research scientists aspired to publish their best work and we are proud that in such a short time this goal is within reach. We look forward to working with the Materials Research Society to continually improve our offerings to the materials research community.”

All three journals are ranked in the Materials Science, Multidisciplinary category. MRS Bulletin, a highly respected monthly publication written by leading experts, increased its cited half-life to 6.2 years. Journal of Materials Research, a premier archival journal in materials research, also received an impressive cited half-life of >10 years.

PLOS Journals now optimized for tablets

In December 2012 we redesigned all our journals, and although they’ve always worked on tablets, we’ve now tailored them to suit these devices as part of our continued roll-out of site enhancements to meet the needs of our community.

Many of the new site features we’ve introduced, such as more prominent figures and a figshare widget to visualize Supporting Information files, are ideally suited to the tablet’s touch interface. Improvements to content navigation are also supported by the addition of touch and swipe capability.

These tablet optimizations are just the beginning of our efforts to improve the mobile experience. Next we’ll be focusing on optimizing our journals for mobile phones. We will be replicating all the core features found on the main journal websites but enhancing them for use on the go. We’re currently working on features such as presenting content only when it is needed to improve loading speed on low bandwidth connections and simplifying the visual interface for small touch screens.

We’re proud to be self-funding these projects using revenue generated from our publishing business. It’s of prime importance for us as a non-profit that we give back to the researchers who publish with us and what better way to say thank you than with an improved tablet and mobile experience.

RSC opens up data for global scientific community via TSO’s OpenUpÒ Linked Data platform

The Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing has chosen TSO, part of the Williams Lea group, and their OpenUpÒ platform to publish bibliographic Linked Open Data.

Building on and supporting complementary platforms and projects such as ChemSpider, OpenPhacts and Prospect, the RSC will open up its bibliographic data from thousands of journal articles as Linked Data, accessible under an open metadata licence.

Dr James Milne, Executive Director of RSC Publishing said: “The Royal Society of Chemistry is committed to advancing the chemical sciences in all we do, and we are a strong supporter of sustainable open access through our journal programme, as exemplified by the community engagement ‘Gold for Gold’ initiative.

“The dawning of a more open era across science is a hugely important step in that journey and we are delighted to be involved in this partnership with TSO, opening up more data to the wider scientific community across the globe.”

The project will initially include 20,000 articles which is approximately 40 million Resource Description Framework (RDF) statements, including bibliographic metadata from three RSC journals; Chemical Communications, MedChemComm and Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC). In the first release the datasets will include basic citation information (title, author, publication date, etc).

To support the RSC’s strategy to unlock the potential from data, a dedicated RSC Linked Data portal, will encourage developers and consumers to query and pull the RDF for re-use via SPARQL queries or a Linked Data API. Consumers and Developers will be able to search and query the bibliographic data alongside other RSC datasets using TSO’s Flint SPARQL query editor. The Linked Data can be mashed up with other open data sources to create innovative applications and visualisations extending its value for the scientific community.

TSO will set up and host the data, held as RDF on its OpenUp® Linked Data platform. The leading in-house team will use its expertise in Linked Data and semantic technologies to provide an end-to-end solution for the RSC including data modelling, URI scheme and reporting.

The RSC joins another prominent scientific publisher, Nature Publishing Group (NPG), in selecting the OpenUpÒ RDF hosting service, to disseminate scientific Linked Data. The tried-and-tested platform has already been relied upon for the dissemination of Linked Data for some of the most important government institutions such as the National Archives – their UK legislation, data published in the Gazettes – and the Office for National Statistics. The RSC has a growing portfolio of Data products and services; collaborating with TSO enables this information to be widely disseminated.

Peter Camilleri, TSO’s Business Development Director commented, “We are delighted to be awarded the contract to work with the prestigious RSC and proud to assist another thought-leading science publisher in delivering Linked Data for the scientific community. The RSC selection of our services reinforces our position as a leader in semantic web technologies. Our cost-effective and advanced OpenUp® Linked Data platform enables publishers to encourage greater re-use and discoverability of their content and ensure chemical research developments can be widely shared to accelerate progress in this critical field.”

BioMed Central launches new OA journal, Movement Ecology

BioMed Central, is today launching a new open access journal Movement Ecology, marking a significant milestone in this field of research as the first journal of its kind. The journal is associated with the new movement ecology institute The Minerva Center for Movement Ecology.

Movement phenomena are among the most basic characteristics of life, playing a key role in determining evolutionary and ecological processes including major global environmental concerns. Movement Ecology welcomes manuscripts on any taxa and any movement phenomena (e.g. foraging, dispersal or seasonal migration) addressing important research questions on the patterns, mechanisms, causes and consequences of organismal movement.

Co-Editors-in-Chief Ran Nathan, a pioneer of the movement ecology paradigm, and ecological mathematician Luca Giuggioli aim to include novel insights from empirical and theoretical approaches into the ecology of movement of the whole organism (animals, plants or microorganisms) as the central theme.

Ran Nathan says, “The journal marks a milestone in the scientific enterprise of movement ecology, a rapidly emerging field aimed at unveiling some of the greatest secrets of nature, for instance what drives big migrations, why animals and plants disperse away from home, how do they forage for food, and how could some navigate so proficiently to the other side of the planet.”

Luca Giuggioli continues, “It is becoming increasingly evident that understanding natural science phenomena requires a transdisciplinary approach. This new open access journal is a great opportunity to push the movement ecology research agenda further by providing a transdisciplinary forum that gives centre stage to the movement of organisms of all kinds.”

Included in the launch issue is an editorial by the Editors-in-Chief introducing the central themes of Movement Ecology, followed by three high quality articles providing just a glimpse of the diversity of this journal.

Lyons et al. developed and tested a new tool for analyzing movement data, illustrating this on springbok in Namibia.

Dodge et al. present a new system for matching movement tracks with environmental variables.

Finally, Safi et al. show that GPS tag data can provide better predictions of direction and speed than inferring details from the next location, testing this on nine species of bird.

Nandita Quaderi, BioMed Central’s Publisher (Biological Science) said, “The launch of Movement Ecology will provide a much-needed forum for discussion for this important ecological paradigm. BioMed Central is pleased to launch this new journal in a rapidly evolving field.  Movement Ecology is an exciting new addition to our growing portfolio of ecology journals, and through the open access model, will allow global dissemination of the latest research to those working on a wide range of taxa and movement phenomena, furthering our understanding of the ecological process of movement.”

Elsevier Announces the Launch of the New Journal: Water Resources and Economics

Elsevier is pleased to announce that the launch of the new journalWater Resources and Economicspublished in association with theInternational Water Association (IWA) and the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE). The first issue of the journal is a special issue presenting findings from the 10th Annual Meeting of the International Water Resource Economics Consortium and is now available for free online on ScienceDirect.

At a time when concerns about the impact of climate change on the availability and distribution of global water resources continue to grow, Water Resources and Economics aims to provide a forum for the discussion of the economic dimensions affecting the allocation and use of water resources.

Prof. Dr. Roy Brouwer of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Editor-in-Chief of Water Resources and Economics envisages the journalplaying an important role in providing scientific information about the economic costs and benefits of water use and management.

“Economics is one of the most prominent emerging disciplines associated to water resources research. The journal addresses the financial and economic dimensions affecting the use of water resources, be it water extraction, pollution, floods or allocation, across different economic sectors like agriculture, energy, industry and urban water supply as well as between local, regional and transborder river basins,” said Dr. Brouwer.

Dr. Christiane Barranguet, Executive Publisher at Elsevier added, “Access to potable water is recognized as one of the grand challenges of the 21stcentury and touches nearly every country on the planet in one form or another. Consequently, research in the field of water resources is now one of the fastest growing disciplines in the world. We are proud to launch this new title together with the IWA and EAERE this year, particularly as 2013 is marked as the International Year of Water Cooperation.”

Articles published in this first issue discuss the implications of studies such as those investigating the issues of “willingness to pay”, avoiding restrictions on household water use during water shortages in Canada, the impact of different water management regimes on rice production in West Africa, and how water conservation incentives can gain leverage from the fact that neighbors often emulate each other’s water use behavior.

All articles published in the first issue are freely available on Science Direct.

For more information about the journal or to submit an article, go to: www.journals.elsevier.com/water-resources-and-economics

Redundancies at OUP after consultation

A major shake-up of a key division of Oxford University Press will lead to job losses, bosses have admitted.

The historic publishing business based in Walton Street, has started a reorganisation of its English Language Teaching department following a “comprehensive review” as it looks to adapt to the demands of digital publishing and recession in key European markets.

But bosses say they are unable to put a figure on job losses with a consultation process due to start today.

Spokesman Dan Sellinger said: “The review was designed to assess the external competitive environment and to explore ways in which the ELT Division can continue to meet the changing needs of teachers and learners across the world.

“The process of reorganisation is expected to see a significant change in roles, reporting lines, and accountabilities for some employees in publishing roles. New roles will be created, others may change and some will no longer exist.”

He added: “We are not announcing any more details at this point.

“It may result in a number of redundancies, but we will not know how many until the consultation process is complete.”

Mr Sellinger was unable to confirm how many people work in the ELT department in Oxford.

But communications director Rachel Goode said: “Our current structure within ELT dates back to the 1990s. We need to change in order to respond to the changing demands of our customers.”

Rumours of the redundancies first surfaced six weeks ago but a company spokesman told the Oxford Mail at the time it was not aware of any plans.

The structure of OUP, which is wholly owned by Oxford University, goes back to the 17th century and it now employs 1,818 people in Oxford and 6,300 globally.

Last year it made a pre-tax profit of £115.1m, compared to £122.6m in 2011. That figure was up from £98.5m in 2010 and £88.7m in 2009.

Unite union spokesman James Bevan said: “We are a little bit in the dark at the moment but there is a formal meeting which will start a 30-day consultation period.”

To continue reading please click here: Source: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/10268248.Jobs_to_go_as_OUP_reorganises_division/

Written by By Andrew Smith, Business Editor at Oxford Mail

 

SAGE announces winner of 2013 ALPSP travel grant

SAGE today announced the recipient of their 2013 library travel grant for the ALPSP International Conference.  Penny Andrews, Library Graduate Trainee at Leeds Metropolitan University won by answering “what would be your top tip to give students about conducting research” with:

“Don’t assume you’re on your own or that books are all the help you get. We’re here to give you skills.”

Penny was chosen by the SAGE judging panel for her consideration of the influential role of the librarian in supporting students and capturing the value of the librarian for academic institutions.

“As we’ve seen in our own research exploring library value, too often users fail to appreciate how much librarians can offer to support teaching and research, which is exactly what Penny’s entry points to,” said Clive Parry, Global Marketing Director, SAGE. “In an environment where both the education and research landscapes are rapidly evolving, supporting the dissemination of knowledge is key. The ALPSP International Conference provides an ideal environment for open discussion between both librarians and publishers to learn how to work together on this shared goal.”

Audrey McCulloch, Chief Executive, ALPSP, further commented, “The exchange of ideas and information between stakeholders is key to meeting the challenges facing our industry.  We’re delighted to have the support of SAGE in promoting the conversation between libraries and publishers and look forward to welcoming Penny Andrews to the ALPSP International Conference in September.” 

The travel grant supports a librarian or information professional with a free place at the ALPSP International Conference from 11-13 September (www.alpspconference.org).

IEEE Journals Sustain High Rankings in Newest Citation Reports

IEEE, the world’s leading technical professional organization for the advancement of technology, has maintained its position as one of the top publishers of science and technology journals. According to the 2012 Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports© (JCR) released in June 2013, IEEE journals sustained their status as premier scholarly publications, earning high rankings in the Impact Factor report.

The following publications ranked #1 in their respective categories:

•    IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (Automation & Control Systems)
•    IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems (Computer Science – Artificial Intelligence)
•    IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part B, Cybernetics (Computer Science – Cybernetics)
•    IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (Computer Science – Hardware & Architecture)
•    IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (Computer Science – Theory & Methods)
•    IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (Engineering – Industrial)
•    IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (Engineering – Manufacturing)
•    IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (Telecommunications)

According to the 2012 report, IEEE publishes:

•    18 of the top 20 journals in Electrical & Electronic Engineering
•    10 of the top 10 journals in Telecommunications
•    8 of the top 10 journals in Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture
•    7 of the top 10 journals in Automation & Control Systems
•    4 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
•    3 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Cybernetics
•    3 of the top 5 journals in Robotics
•    2 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Information Systems
•    2 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Software Engineering
•    2 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Theory & Methods
•    2 of the top 5 journals in Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
•    2 of the top 5 journals in Remote Sensing

The report also found that IEEE publishes all of the top 10 journals in the Telecommunications category and 8 of the top 10 journals in the Electrical & Electronic Engineering category based on the Eigenfactor score, a scale that measures the number of times articles from a journal are published in the last five years.

The JCR offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world’s leading journals. By compiling articles’ cited references, the JCR helps to measure research influence and impact and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals.

Thomson Reuters ScholarOne Web Services Innovative Approach to Resource Integration Enhances Scholarly Publishing Process

The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced the preview of ScholarOneTM Web Services, an innovative addition to industry-leading publishing solution ScholarOne.

ScholarOne Web Services is a holistic approach to integration that will enable publishers to uncover connections between shared research and its impact in the broader world of scholarship. The new resource’s content, tools and services will help publishers remain on the pulse of their journal’s field of research and streamline the publishing process to deliver critical and influential content to the market quickly.

“With the launch of ScholarOne’s Web Services, the peer review system will seamlessly connect internal and external resources to support client missions,” said Jasper Simons, vice president of product and market strategy for the Scientific and Scholarly Research business of Thomson Reuters.   “Clients can integrate their internal tools and link with important industry initiatives like ORCID and FundRef, enabling a truly enterprise-wide solution of standardized, consistent data exchange.”

Through this initiative, Thomson Reuters continues its commitment to scalable solutions rather than utilizing web services to only support specific objectives or integrations. Amenities such as ScholarOne Web Services are designed to accommodate every customer need and budget, from freely available options offered as part of a subscription to paid services that support more specific requirements.

“As a client of Thomson Reuters, I am continually impressed by their market-driven development and enhancement path,” said Christian Kohl, director of Information and Publishing Technology at De Gruyter, a leading Open Access publisher. “This addition to ScholarOne allows clients to leverage full technology from ORCID and FundRef, making it an invaluable tool for clients. Having so much data and administrative capabilities gives researchers the ability to capture broad perspectives efficiently and effectively, leaving resources available for other internal initiatives.”

ScholarOne Web Services provides integration with ORCID, which allows clients to verify and map individuals to their work and automate administrative tasks, allowing for better-informed publishing decisions; and FundRef, which allows clients to capture unique funding identifiers and grant numbers as part of the submission process and include funding identifiers and grant numbers in published articles.

ScholarOne Web Services will also provide the option to extend connectivity with the Reviewer Locator, which allows clients to search the industry-leading Web of ScienceSM for appropriate reviewers, preventing review fatigue and accelerating the time to publish.

Beginning with the support for the FundRef taxonomy in September, components of the ScholarOne Web Services offering will continue to be released over the course of 2013.