The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has joined major sponsors Public Library of Science (PLOS), Wellcome Trust and Google to launch the Accelerating Science Award Program (ASAP), which recognises the use of scientific research, published through open access, which has led to innovations in any field that benefits society.
The goal of the ASAP programme is to build awareness and encourage the use of open access scientific research and, through these stories, inspire greater support for open access.
This new, innovative programme recognises individuals who have used, applied, or remixed scientific research - published through open access - to innovate and make a difference in science, medicine, business, technology, or society as a whole. Potential nominees include individuals, teams, or groups of collaborators - such as scientists, researchers, educators, social service workers, technology leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, patient advocates, public health workers and students - who have used scientific research in transformative ways.
Three top awards of $30,000 each will be presented. The nomination period is open from May 1 to June 15, 2013. Winners will be announced in Washington, DC, in October 2013, at an Open Access Week kick-off event hosted by SPARC and the World Bank.
The ASAP program is sponsored by 24 global organisations that value the transformative impact of applying scientific research, published through open access, to extend the reach of science and medicine.
STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced the launch of its third annual Mosby's 'Superheroes of Nursing' contest, aimed at recognising the work and dedication of individual nursing professionals.
The contest is officially opening for 2013 applicants on May 1, as a kick-off to Nurses Week (May 6-12), and will be announcing the winners in October. The contest will be accepting nominations for applicants who fit into five categories - The Achiever, Protector, Educator, Validator, and introducing the newest hero, the Connector.
Videos, photos, and essays can be uploaded starting from May to August to nominate deserving nurses in any of the five categories on the Mosby's Suite Facebook page. Elsevier will narrow down the nominations to a select number of submissions that best represent one of the key five categories, and the winner will be chosen from these applicants by the fans on Facebook.
Elsevier offers evidence-based tools and staff development resources that can help organisations manage performance, improve workflow and coordination of care, reduce patient care errors, and increase satisfaction to boost staff retention rates. The 'Superheroes of Nursing' campaign illustrates how the utilisation of these solutions helps develop real-life nursing superheroes to provide unmatched, selfless care and to lead their peers by example.
Additional information can be found by "liking" the Mosby's Suite Facebook page, which offers current news and announcements. The winners will be announced at the Elsevier booth during the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) National Magnet Conference, October 2-4, 2013, in Orlando.
STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that six of its books will receive awards from the Text and Academic Authors Association. Four titles will receive the Textbook Excellence Award, better known as a 'Texty,' and two titles will receive the Most Promising New Textbook Award. The awards will be presented during a luncheon at the Text and Academic Authors Association 26th Annual Conference in Reno, NV, June 22, 2013.
The Text and Academic Authors Association announced a total of 16 award winners in three categories, including: the 2013 Most Promising New Textbook Award, which recognises excellence in first year edition textbooks and learning materials and the 2013 Textbook Excellence Award, which recognises excellence in current textbook and learning materials in their second edition or later.
These books, all published by Elsevier or under the Academic Cell, Academic Press and Morgan Kaufman imprint, are available on the Elsevier Store or on ScienceDirect.
STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, and IEDA (Integrated Earth Data Applications), an NSF-funded data facility in the geosciences at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, are jointly launching a new competition, the International Data Rescue Competition, which aims to improve preservation and access of research data in the earth sciences discipline. The challenge invites members of the international geosciences community who have worked on efforts that advance preservation and access of research data, particularly dark data, to share their work and the varied ways that these data are being processed, stored and used.
In launching the competition, Elsevier and IEDA hope to showcase the breadth, depth and diversity of existing initiatives for disclosing research data within the field of geosciences, to promote recognition of these efforts and to encourage new developments in this direction. In addition, they hope to encourage the establishment of a multi-disciplinary community across all areas of geosciences to discuss the multitude of tools and methods that are being developed to rescue data from oblivion and stimulate the sharing of knowledge, tools and standards pertaining to making research data reusable across various earth and environmental sciences domains.
As part of the submission process each participant must describe different aspects of their data rescue project, including examples of the data as it looked before and after the rescue process; a description of ways in which the data could be or is used after being made available electronically; a description of metadata, models and standards and the data repository or collection used to make the data available to be accessed and used; and a description of the rescue process, whether it be manual, automated, or a combination of both.
A cross-disciplinary panel of judges will assess the submissions and invite the top ten proposals to a special award ceremony to be held in December 2013. The award will consist of a Data Rescue trophy and $ 5000.
Researcher proposals are welcome to be submitted until October 10, 2013. Details of the competition criteria and a link to a submission template can be found on the Data Rescue Award website: http://researchdata.elsevier.com/datachallenge.
APEC member economies have announced that they will honour a young scientist in 2013 whose collaborative work in the region has made an outstanding contribution to sustainable ocean development. Publishers John Wiley&Sons, Inc. and Elsevier are sponsors for the APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (ASPIRE Prize).
'Sustainable Ocean Development', the theme of this year's ASPIRE Prize, is seen to reflect members' focus on boosting cooperation that can help to generate innovative, environmentally and economically sustainable management solutions for the region's oceans and waterways. It targets young scientists from APEC economies who specialise in fields such as oceanography and marine sciences, aquaculture and fisheries science, hydrology, hydrography and costal geography. The merit of their collaborative accomplishments must be evidenced by scholarly publication.
Each APEC member economy may nominate one individual under 40 years of age for the 2013 ASPIRE Prize which is sponsored by Wiley and Elsevier, and carries $25,000 in prize money. The submission deadline is May, 3 2013.
