IS News Blog

As scheduled, the main Library building on Stirling campus is now closed to users for the duration of building works as part of the New Library Project.

 

On Monday 29^th June, the Library reopened its doors in its temporary location for the next year, following a short closure period to allow us to relocate the services (Information Centre, Lending Services and Document Delivery Service) to the new building.

 

The Library can now be accessed from the other side of the Atrium, next to the Atrium Fast Food Bar. 

 

A collection of 130,000 core texts has been relocated to the Library, some of which are open access in the Library area, and some of which are held in the basement store and have to be requested through a link in the library catalogue record.

 

Some photos of the new Library area are available on our New Library Project Facebook page.

 

To find out more about the Library service over the next year, see the link on the IS home page to ‘Library Services 2009-2010′.

 

library@stir.ac.uk

The library will be closed from Friday 26th June to Sunday 28th June.  This closure is to allow services to move into the interim library. 

 

The interim library will open on Monday 29th June at 9am.  Its entrance will be next to the Atrium Fast Food Bar.

 

Information on the library services during the interim (summer 2009 – summer 2010) can be found at http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/libservices2009-2010.php

 

library@stir.ac.uk

FOR THE ATTENTION OF ALL STAFF AND STUDENTS

 

As previously advertised, the Stirling Campus Library will be closed from Friday 26^th June until Sunday 28^th June to complete the move to the Interim library building.

 

On Friday 26^th June, the Information Centre will be open in a limited capacity:  you can still contact us via email to infocentre@stir.ac.uk or by phone on 01786 467250.  Please note that there will only be one phone line in operation so it may be difficult to get through by phone – please email unless your enquiry is urgent.

 

The Information Centre and the Library will reopen on Monday 29^th June in the new location with a new entrance from the Atrium area.

 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Information Centre
infocentre@stir.ac.uk

Journal Citation Reports are an immensely useful tool and can help with identifying:

- journals with the greatest total cites and the highest impact in your field

- journals relevant to your research and those in which it would be desirable to publish

 

Each edition of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is published annually following the year of coverage – and the latest 2008 edition has recently become available.

 

There are two different editions:  the Science Edition covering more than 6,400 science journals, and the Social Sciences Edition, covering more than 1,800 social sciences journals.

 

As usual the latest edition includes:

 

• Journal Impact Factors: the frequency with which the “average article” in a journal has been cited in a particular year. Helps evaluate a journal’s relative importance in a given field
• Total Cites: tells you which journals are most frequently cited. Journals are ranked by the number of times they are cited in a given year; gives an indication of assessment of journals by scholars who have responded to the items published

 

Recently, extra useful metrics have been added:

 

• Five-Year Impact Factor – Gives a broader range of citation activity for a more informative snapshot over time. For journals in subjects where citation activity continues to rise through several years, this allows more of their total citation activity to be included in a critical performance metric.
• Eigenfactor^TM Metrics, comprised of the Eigenfactor^TM Score and Article Influence^TM Score, are designed to reflect the prestige and citation influence of journals by considering scholarly literature as a network of journal-to-journal relationships.   Find out more about how to interpret these scores at: http://www.eigenfactor.org/faq.htm   
• Graphic Displays of Impact Factor “Box Plots” – A graphic interpretation of how a journal ranks in different categories.
• Rank-in-Category Tables for Journals Covering Multiple Disciplines – Allows a journal to be seen in the context of multiple categories at a glance rather than only a single one.
• Journal “Self Citations” – An analysis of journal self citations and their contribution to the Journal Impact Factor calculation.

 

To find out more read the JCR Fact Sheet.

 

To search JCR, logon to the University Portal, and then from the “A-Z list of online resources” select Journal Citation Reports. 

 

JCR is also integrated with Web of Science, so after a search on Web of Science when viewing an individual article record you can link directly to JCR to quickly check the source journal’s impact factor, and other metrics.

 

Clare Allan
Library Liaison and Training Team

Essential maintenance will take place on the portal server on the mornings of Wed 10 June and Fri 12 June between 7:00 and 8:30.  This work is being carried out during the systems ‘at risk’ period in order to minimise disruption to users.

 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

 

Information Services

infocentre@stir.ac.uk

Intute have created an EU elections blog: http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/blog/category/eu-elections/ where they are highlighting a selection of key websites and new studies about the elections, plus a collection of voter quizzes and online tools to help you make up your mind.

 

There is also a special section on Intute where you can find catalogue records to academic resources relating to EU elections (both current and historic) – see: http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/cgi-bin/browse.pl?id=120175&gateway=%

 

This includes key organisations, news services, online videos and individual articles and research studies.

 

 

Clare Allan

Library Liaison and Training