New Hot Papers from ISI

A great way to keep your finger on the pulse of what's hot in scientific research is to check out New Hot Papers, a service of ISI Essential Science Indicators. From the website:

Hot papers are selected by virtue of being cited among the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) in a current bimonthly period. Papers are selected in each of 22 fields of science and must be published within the last two years.

An additional bonus is that for many of the Hot Papers, you can read "Comments/Mini-Interviews" with the authors, who attempt to summarize their research in layman's terms and discuss the background and context of their papers.

Check out September's hot papers--and if you want to get the full text of any of them, be sure to check the UMass library catalog and our E-journal list; if they aren't available from UMass, you can request them via Interlibrary Loan.

Red Sox Nation in the Science pages

Two news items today from the nexus of baseball and science:

From Scientific American:
Scientific American: Watching World Series Causes Drop In Hospital Visits

and from the Boston Globe:
Can "Weird Science" Save the Sox?

NPG announces new social bookmarking tool for scientists

Nature Publishing Group has launched a free social bookmarking tool called Connotea. (read more about Connotea)

For those unfamiliar with social bookmarking tools: these are Web-based services that allow you to create an account, then store favorite websites, aka bookmarks, in that account, which is accessible to you from any computer on the Internet. Two of the more famous social bookmarking services are Del.icio.us and Furl. In effect, you're putting your Favorites online, rather than keeping them tied to one workstation.

The "social" part of social bookmarking refers to the fact that you can (but don't have to) make your collection of links public--that is, other users can see what you've chosen to store. An extra-added feature is that you can assign keywords, or tags, to the sites that you store. You choose the tags yourself, and you can assign more than one tag to any given website. Tagging is a more dynamic and flexible form of information categorization than, say, folders.

How is Connotea different from sites like del.icio.us? Since it is targeted at a scholarly community, there is support built in for various tools (such as OpenURL standards, DOIs, and standard reference formats) associated with online journal literature. (See the FAQ for more details.) This makes it possible to bookmark scholarly journal articles from a variety of sources in addition to plain old websites.

The social aspects of Connotea could make for an interesting new form of scientific communication. (What articles and websites are other people in your research group bookmarking? What about colleagues at other institutions?)

The UMass Libraries offer a similar service for managing and storing citations (as well as websites, if you wish) called RefWorks. RefWorks is an even more powerful tool that is an online equivalent to tools like EndNote or ProCite. In addition to storing and organizing citations (and it is possible to export citations from many library databases *directly* into RefWorks), you can automatically format references in any one of dozens of bibliographic or journal citation styles. Unlike EndNote, RefWorks is Web-based, so--like Connotea or del.icio.us--you can access it from any computer on the Internet.

I think of Connotea as combining the scholarly focus of RefWorks with the social capabilities of del.icio.us and Furl. Each service has different strengths, and it's up to each researcher to decide which, if any, is the most suitable.

[Chemistry] New chemistry reference works @ ISEL

We've received a couple of important new chemistry reference titles at ISEL:

Comprehensive Organic Functional Group Transformations II (Science Ref QD 262 .C534 2005, 7 vols.)
From the publisher description:

Comprehensive Organic Functional Group Transformations II (COFGT-II) will provide the first point of entry to the literature for all scientists interested in chemical transformations. Presenting the vast subject of organic synthesis in terms of the introduction and interconversion of all known functional groups, COFGT-II will provide a unique information source documenting all methods of efficiently performing a particular transformation.

Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry (Science Ref QD 415.A25 E53 2004, 4 vols.)
A four-volume work including over 500 articles covering "virtually every aspect of biology for which we have 'mechanistic' information." Articles contain references to further reading. Intended for generalists with some background in chemistry and biology.

[Physics] Encyclopedia of Modern Optics now at ISEL

The newest physics addition to ISEL's reference shelves is the five-volume Encyclopedia of Modern Optics (Science Ref QC 351.2 .E53 2005). From the preface: "The purpose of this Encyclopedia is to provide a resource for introducing optical fundamentals and technologies to the general technical audience for whom optics is a key capability in exploring their field of interest."

[Physics] Living Reviews

Two open-access journals that have been around for a while, but which I just learned about, are Living Reviews in Relativity and Living Reviews in Solar Physics.

A description of the Living Reviews concept, from their website:

Articles are solicited from leading authorities and are intended for physicists at or above the graduate-student level. The Articles in Living Reviews provide up-to-date critical reviews of the state of research in the fields they cover. Articles also offer annotated insights (and where possible, active links) into the key literature and describe online resources available in these fields. Living Reviews is unique in maintaining a suite of high-quality reviews; its articles are subjected to strict peer-review and are kept up-to-date by the authors. This is the meaning of the word "Living" in the journal's title.

[Microbiology] Best Sellers in Microbiology, 2005

According to YBP Library Services, here are the top 20 best sellers in microbiology for 2005. I've linked to the catalog for books that the UMass libraries own. See a title you think we should buy? Just let me know.

1) Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
Kluger, Jeffrey. Putnam, 2005.

2) Living with Germs: In Sickness and In Health
Playfair, John. Oxford U. Press, 2004.

3) Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture
Thacker, Eugene. MIT Press, 2005.

4) Viruses and the Evolution of Life
Villarreal, Luis P. American Society for Microbiology, 2004.

5) Food Microbiology: An Introduction
Montiville, Thomas J., et al. American Society for Microbiology, 2005.

6) Microbial Ecology of Soil and Plant Growth
Davet, Pierre. Science Publishers, Inc., 2004.

7) Microbial Ecology of the Soil and Plant Growth
Davet, Pierre. Science Publishers, Inc., 2004.

8) Petroleum Microbiology
Ed. by Bernard Ollivier. American Society for Microbiology, 2005.

9) Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology
Hall, J. Storrs. Prometheus, 2005.

10) Freshwater Microbiology: Biodiversity and Dynamic Interactions of
Microorganisms in the Aquatic Environment
Sigee, David C. John Wiley, 2005.

11) Microbial Phylogeny and Evolution: Concepts and Controversies
Ed. by Jan Sapp. Oxford U. Press, 2005.

12) Life in Ancient Ice
Ed. By John D. Castello. Princeton U. Press, 2005.

13) Nanotechnology: Global Strategies, Industry Trends and
Applications
Ed. by Jurgen Schulte. John Wiley, 2005.

14) Nano-Micro Interface: Bridging the Micro and Nano Worlds
Ed. by Hans-Jorg Fecht. Wiley-Vch, 2004.

15) Lab-On-Chips for Cellomics: Micro and Nanotechnologies for Life
Science
Ed. by Helene Andersson. Kluwer Academic, 2004.

16) Nanoscale Technology in Biological Systems
Ed. by Ralph S. Greco. CRC Press, 2005.

17) Infectious Processes: Knowledge, Discourse and the Politics of
Prions
Ed. by Eve Seguin. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

18) Organic and Inorganic Nanostructures
Nabok, Alexei. Artech House, 2005.

19) Microbial Diversity: Form and Function in Prokaryotes
Ogunseitan, Oladele. Blackwell Science, 2005.

20) Bioremediation: Applied Microbial Solutions for Real-World
Environmental Cleanup
Ed. by Ronald M. Atlas. American Society for Microbiology, 2005.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Microbiology at 9/16/2005 05:15:00 AM

[Biochemistry] New e-journals @ UMass Libraries

Attention, biochemists & molecular biologists: The following new electronic journals, now available to the UMass community via the library catalog and/or e-journal locator, may interest you:

Biomagnetic research and technology, 2003-
Cell biology education, 2002-
Cell communication and signaling, 2003-
Cytojournal, 2004-
Genetic vaccines and therapy, 2003-
Genome research, 1997-
Journal of biomedicine and biotechnology, 2001-
Journal of nanobiotechnology, 2003-
Molecular pain, 2005-
Nuclear receptor, 2003-
Proteome science, 2003-

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Biochemistry at 9/14/2005 05:16:00 AM

[Microbiology] New e-journals @ UMass Libraries

Attention, microbiologists: The following new electronic journals, now available to the UMass community via the library catalog and/or e-journal locator, may interest you:

Retrovirology, 2004-
Virology journal, 2004-

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Microbiology at 9/13/2005 05:29:00 PM

[Veterinary & Animal Science] New e-journals @ UMass Libraries

Attention, Veterinary and Animal Science types: The following new electronic journals, now available to the UMass community via the library catalog and/or e-journal locator, may interest you:

BMC veterinary research, 2005-
Canadian journal of veterinary research, 2002-
Canadian veterinary journal, 2002-
Frontiers in zoology, 2004-
Reproductive biology and endocrinology, 2003-

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Veterinary & Animal Science at 9/13/2005 05:20:00 PM

[Chemistry] RSC journals offering RSS feeds

The Royal Society of Chemistry is now offering RSS feeds for its journals.

From the RSC announcement:

RSS feeds are available for journal Advance Articles. Advance Articles are the first web publication of each article, giving you access to new research as soon as published. Most RSC journals publish new Advance Articles daily and the feed contains the graphical abstract and text from the journals contents pages.

View a list of RSS feeds for RSC journals.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Chemistry at 9/12/2005 11:19:00 AM

[Mathematics] SIAM and Katrina

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) has announced several services for math scholars (and libraries!) who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Full announcement here.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Mathematics & Statistics at 9/09/2005 06:01:00 AM

[Biochemistry] UMass professor wins ACS prize

Congratulations to Lila Gierasch, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, for being awarded the 2006 Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal from the American Chemical Society!

Full story here.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Biochemistry at 9/08/2005 12:54:00 PM

[Veterinary & Animal Science] New open-access veterinary journal

A new open-access journal, BMC Veterinary Research, has been announced by BioMed Central. From their June 1 press release:

BioMed Central today announces the launch of BMC Veterinary Research, the first international Open Access journal to cover all areas of veterinary science and medicine. BMC Veterinary Research will provide unrestricted access to this multi-disciplinary field where readership is currently restricted by the high subscription prices of specialist journals. The journal is now accepting submissions at http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcvetres.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Veterinary & Animal Science at 9/08/2005 10:16:00 AM

[Biochemistry] Biochemical Journal now available in PubMed Central

From PubMed Central News:

The following journal has been added to the PubMed Central archive:

Journal: Biochemical Journal
ISSN: 0264-6021 (Print), 1470-8728 (Electronic)
URL: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=74
Archive includes: Scanned data from 1951-1953, 1958-1959, and 1967-1995,
as well as full-text for July 2004 - March 2005.

The back issues of this journal are currently being digitized. While
this is in progress you may find gaps in the range of available
issues/volumes below. Once the archive is complete, a notice will be
sent to pmc-news. The journal includes a 6 month publication delay in
PMC.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Biochemistry at 9/08/2005 05:12:00 AM

[Microbiology] Free access to Nature Reviews--Microbiology

Nature Reviews Microbiology is offering free access to its content for one month. From the announcement:

"Nature Reviews Microbiology is a journal committed to the entire
microbiology community, providing complete coverage of the disciplines
of microbiology, biotechnology and infectious diseases, with its
clinical, industrial and environmental applications."

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Microbiology at 9/07/2005 08:49:00 AM

[Veterinary & Animal Science] 95% of thoroughbreds linked to one superstud

New Scientist Breaking News - 95% of thoroughbreds linked to one superstud: "Virtually all 500,000 of the world’s thoroughbred racehorses are descended from 28 ancestors, born in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to a new genetic study. And up to 95% of male thoroughbreds can be traced back to just one stallion."

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Veterinary & Animal Science at 9/07/2005 08:47:00 AM

[Biochemistry] PRoteomics IDEntifications Database (PRIDE) goes live

PRIDE - Home page

From the European Bioinformatics Institute and Ghent University in Belgium comes PRIDE, an open access database of proteomics information. From the PRIDE website:

"The PRIDE PRoteomics IDEntifications database is a centralized, standards compliant, public data repository for proteomics data. It has been developed to provide the proteomics community with a public repository for protein and peptide identifications together with the evidence supporting these identifications."

PRIDE can be searched many ways, including by tissue, disease, sub-cellular component, species/taxonomy, or protein accession number.

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Posted by era to Science Library Update-Biochemistry at 9/01/2005 05:40:00 AM