Monthly Archives: June 2013

Evaluating Scientific Research: Recommendations from DORA

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When I first saw the word “DORA”, I automatically thought of Dora the Explorer, an American animated television series that focuses on a Latina girl named Dora Marquez who embarks on quests escorted by her talking purple backpack and anthropomorphic monkey companion named Boots. Each episode is based on Dora’s travels and the various obstacles and conundrums they must solve to the delight of young television viewers.

Another “DORA” recently surfaced and the intended audience is the scientific research community (declaration went public on May 17, 2013).  The acronym stands for “Declaration of Research Assessment” and as of the writing of this post, has signatures from 310 organizations and 8,106 individuals who support this initiative.  Like Dora the Explorer, the originators are also embarking on a quest to change the way in which the output of scientific research is evaluated by funding agencies, academic institutions, and other parties – to find a better way to assess the impact of scientific research. Continue reading →

2012 Journal Citation Report is Available

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Thomson Reuters has recently released the 2012 Journal Citation Reports (JCR).  JCR is an annual publication analyzing one year of citation data. It provides a variety of impact and influence metrics, including the Journal Impact Factor and Eigenfactor from the Thomson Reuters citation indexes.

 

The 2012 JCR includes:

  • More than 10,800 of the world’s most highly cited, peer reviewed journals in 232 disciplines
  • Nearly 2,500 publishers and 83 countries represented
  • 379 journals receiving their first Journal Impact Factor

You can access the 2012 Journal Citation Reports from here, or through the MSKsearch search box from the Library’s Website. For more information on Journal Citation Reports, please visit here.

Resource Highlights: Mendeley as a Collaborative Tool

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Reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s ugly duckling whose potential was not fully realized, so too is Mendeley in the world of citation management tools. Unlike some of its market-controlled counterparts, Mendeley is a powerful citation management resource with unique features that set it apart from the rest.

Mendeley offers users the following abilities:

  1. Importing references and whole documents from files/folders, EndNote, and RefWorks
  2. Importing items directly from a webpage using a unique bookmark affixed to a browser window
  3. Annotating and highlighting whole PDF documents in a Mendeley account
  4. Easily sort, refine, and edit records
  5. Cite while writing directly in Microsoft Word and create bibliographies of references used
  6. Newsfeeds, discussions, groups, and colleague connections to discover new research in a field of study
  7. Mobile access for iOS: Mendeley – Reference Manager (Lite)

Most of these features have been done before by way of EndNote and RefWorks, right? But do these tools allow users to set up groups with colleagues halfway round the world? Or share papers with other like-minded individuals and begin open discussions about the specifics of that paper or any given topic?
Continue reading →