Business information provider Thomson Reuters, US, has announced the release of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports (JCR). JCR claims to be the world's most influential source of information about highly-cited, peer reviewed publications and the source of the new Journal Impact Factors.
The 2010 release features the largest ever JCR with 10,196 journal listings in 238 disciplines of Science and Social Sciences. About 2,494 publishers from 84 countries are represented, some for the first time. A total of 1,075 journals receive their first Journal Impact Factor in the latest JCR release.
Through the Thomson Reuters Regional Content Expansion project, an ambitious multi-year initiative that began in 2006, Thomson Reuters has successfully added 1,355 journals with a regional focus in 84 countries - 522 of which receive a Journal Impact Factor for the first time.
Journal Selection takes place throughout the course of a year and its goal is to identify, evaluate and select the most important and influential International and Regional journals for coverage in Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge platform. The following year, these data are then analysed and published in the JCR release, providing a view of how these journals are integrated, through citation, with the scholarly, multidisciplinary literature.
The recognised authority for evaluating journals, JCR presents quantitative data that support a systematic, objective review of the world's leading journals. Using a combination of impact and influence metrics, and millions of cited and citing journal data points that comprise the complete journal citation network of Web of Knowledge, JCR enables users to understand a journal's true place in the world of scholarly literature.
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Technical professional association IEEE, US, has announced that the IEEE Standards Wireless Dictionary app is now available on the Android platform. A singular resource for wireless industry practitioners, researchers, and students, the app offers immediate, intuitive access to the comprehensive IEEE standards dictionary of wireless technology terms and definitions.
With a body of work in wireless technologies that spans decades, IEEE has collected and catalogued more than 3200 industry terms and definitions. This continually expanding wireless lexicon is culled from numerous IEEE standards. Users can easily search by keyword or standard number, or browse the extensive database alphabetically. An autocomplete functionality automatically identifies terms being searched, simplifying and speeding the search process. The IEEE Standards Wireless Dictionary app also provides complete source citations, ideal for researchers, editors, and students.
Designed to expand IEEE-SA's penetration of the mobile arena, the IEEE Standards Wireless Dictionary Android app joins the previously released iPhone app of the same name and marks a new milestone in its mobile initiative. In July 2010, IEEE-SA launched its National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) Mobile Standard, optimised for mobile devices including smartphones and tablet PCs.
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Technology research firm Gartner, Inc., US, has released a special report titled 'Greening the Cloud: Location is Critical for the Sustainable Future of Outsourced Data Storage and Services.' According to the report, cloud computing services are touted as 'greener' than owning and running in-house technology infrastructure, but geographic location is the key to more sustainable outsourced data storage and services.
Data centre operational costs are continuing to rise, with Gartner estimating that up to 50 percent of operating costs are associated with heating and cooling. As a result, energy consumption, efficiency, monitoring and management will be a dominant trend in data centre operations over the next five years. Recent Gartner research points to substantial (greater than 30 percent) potential savings in operating costs relating to electricity usage when efficiency design principles are incorporated, as well as lower upfront capital costs.
According to Gartner, Australia's high carbon intensive energy generation is far from conducive to the development of a long-term green IT services sector. Around 92 percent of the nation's energy is sourced from fossil fuels. New Zealand is comparatively green, classed as a low-emission intensity country. The development of IT storage and services in New Zealand, leveraging the vast and established renewable energy sources such as geothermal, wind, tidal and hydro power, could provide the basis for a substantial content-based economic model, the Gartner report says.
When looking at geographic location, there are many other factors that need to be taken into account. These include the longer-term availability and cost of electricity; communications infrastructure and data latency issues; data privacy; the need to ensure that latency-sensitive services (such as stock market transactions, issues of national security) are securely and proximally located; the presence of a local skilled IT services workforce; and an advantageous local taxation regime that encourages long-term public/private procurement strategies for electricity and other key resources.
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Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO), US, has announced that the National and University Library of Slovenia has chosen EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) as its discovery tool. The library was looking to move beyond federated search and provide a single searching environment to bring together all of their library resources.
Established in 1774, The National and University Library claims to be one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. Srecko Boncina Head of the Information Center at National and University Library credits the strong relationship with EBSCO coupled with the positive feedback from users in the decision to select EDS as the library's discovery tool.
National and University Library has an extensive array of EBSCO databases and is also using EBSCOhost Integrated Search (EHIS). EHIS is a complement to EBSCO Discovery Service extending the discovery experience to external resources that are not made available for local harvesting.
EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customised index of an institution's information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box. The Base Index for EBSCO Discovery Service forms the foundation upon which each EDS subscribing library builds out its custom collection. Beginning with the Base Index, each institution extends the reach of EDS by adding appropriate resources including its catalogue, institutional repositories, EBSCOhost and other databases, and additional content sources to which it subscribes.
The EDS Base Index is comprised of metadata from the world's foremost information providers. At present, the EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers.
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Academic publisher Taylor & Francis, UK, has announced the successful sponsorship of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The company's Global Publishing Director, David Green, was on a panel of publishing leaders. Here, the debate ranged from the current state of publishing in Canada to new models of dissemination and the particular culture of and opportunities in the Canadian research community.
One of the biggest challenges facing local Canadian journals is how to keep attracting top Canadian research rather than seeing it being published in highly ranked journals in Europe or America. In a survey of 6,654 Taylor & Francis authors in Canada, it was found that robust peer-review and a good journal reputation are most important to Canadian researchers, reinforcing the challenges local journals face to draw the best local research articles. French remains a key consideration for navigating journal articles, but less so for writing them. Worldwide reach, however, is essential, while publishing with a press located in Canada is not regarded as beneficial.
Respondents were also invited to rate other major science journal publishers. On all counts, Taylor & Francis was most highly rated, and generally by a significant margin, according to the company.
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Computer library service and research organisation OCLC, US, has announced two more implementations of its WorldCat Local discovery service at libraries in the UK and Ireland. According to OCLC, libraries across Europe are responding positively to WorldCat Local's ability to connect users to 800 million electronic, digital and physical resources held in library collections locally and globally, via a single search box.
In Ireland, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology's (IADT) WorldCat Local implementation is on track to launch in time for the new academic year this September. Recently, the Irish educational landscape has undergone and continues to experience significant change. One of the many challenges facing those in the sector like IADT is finding more efficient ways of delivering knowledge to its users.
WorldCat Local's ability to search multiple catalogues, systems and e-resources simultaneously is also cited by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as an important factor in its decision to implement the service. NERC went live with WorldCat Local in May and is reporting positive feedback from users.
NERC's library collections, dispersed across a number of Research Centres throughout the UK, reflect the breadth and depth of research in the environmental sciences over recent decades. Use of the collections had waned in favour of desktop access to the growing volume of scientific research materials available online.
Over the past year, NERC implemented a major project to merge the library systems, services, collections and staff of its Research Centre libraries. Three of these (the British Antarctic Survey, the British Geological Survey and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), made the decision to retain OCLC's OLIB library management system, becoming the first OLIB user in the UK to adopt WorldCat Local.
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The discussion followed HarperCollins' February announcement of its current policy under which new titles licensed from library e-book vendors are restricted to 26 circulations. The license then expires.
One important outcome of the discussion is that HarperCollins will contribute to the E-books Taskforce's series of answers to frequently asked questions sent to the taskforce from ALA members that cover issues from basic questions about e-book readers to specific questions about licensing. The ALA e-books taskforce released its first FAQ addressing questions (PDF) from public libraries and will release more to address questions from school and academic libraries. HarperCollins' contribution will give the publisher's perspective.
According to Tijerina, HarperCollins understands that public libraries value sharing information and has expressed its commitment to provide models that ensure this information-sharing can continue. Libraries know publishers are seeking viable economic models so that they can continue to provide the kind of resources that the public expects at their libraries.
The ALA e-books taskforce looks forward to continuing this open dialogue so that libraries can offer the public the enhanced services available through the emerging technologies in today's e-book environment.
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Academic publisher SAGE has announced that it has been chosen by the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University to publish its journal, the Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ), beginning this month.
ASQ claims to be a top-tier journal that has been on the cutting-edge of organisational studies since the field began. The journal seeks to promote high quality interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical work across a wide range of perspectives and styles. It is listed in the Financial Times Top 45 Research Journals, and is highly ranked in both the Management and Business categories of the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports.
The journal supports its mission to help further the field by seeking the best theoretical and empirical work on organisational studies, publishing interdisciplinary work in organisation theory across a vast range of perspectives, and offering informative book reviews. Joining the SAGE journal family means that the journal will be available through SAGE Journals Online and authors will be able to submit articles for review through SAGE Track.
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Thomson Reuters releases 2010 Journal Citation Reports
Taylor & Francis sponsors Canadian Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences
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