New IEEE Journals

IEEE will be launching three new IEEE journals in 2011, covering a wide range of technologies:

IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems will publish special issues covering the entire field of interest of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society with particular focus on emerging areas. It will include research contributions from leading experts, as well as presentations geared towards a wider audience of scientists and practitioners. Research will be in the form of overview and tutorial-style articles, as well as multidisciplinary research papers.


IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics is a peer-reviewed, archival publication reporting original and significant research results in the field of photovoltaics (PV).  The journal publishes articles that connect this science base to PV science and technology.  The scope of this publication, which is to be the premiere archival venue for advances in the broad field of photovoltaics, includes: fundamentals and new concepts, thin-film solar cells, III-V and concentrator solar cells, Si-based PV, organic PV, advances in PV characterization, and PV systems. 

IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology will focus on original research on devices and systems operating in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. It will include articles on applications and basic science using the THz spectrum in biology, medicine, imaging, atmospheric and environmental science, remote sensing, radio astronomy, spectroscopy, telecommunications, standoff detection and security, and nondestructive or nonintrusive evaluation and ultrafast science using pulsed THz beams.

Watch for these journals in IEEE Xplore next year.

Open Access Hearing

From SPARC:

"The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, the Census and National Archives announced it will hold a hearing on the issue of public access to federally funded research on Thursday, July 29. The hearing will provide an opportunity for the Committee to hear the perspectives of a broad range of stakeholders on the potential impact of opening up access to the results of the United States’ more than $60 billion annual investment in scientific research.

The hearing will examine the state of public access to federally-funded research in science, technology, and medicine. The hearing will assess and delineate the complex issues surrounding public access policies. The hearing will afford an opportunity for representatives from the areas of publishing, science and research, education and patient care to provide perspective on challenges, potential impact and opportunities regarding increased access.”

This open, public hearing will be held Thursday, July 29, at 2:00 PM in Rayburn House Office Building, room 2154.

In Denial?

An interesting interview with "Claudio Aspesi — an analyst based at the sell-side research firm Sanford Bernstein — [in which he] argues that [STM publisher Reed Elsevier] is 'in denial on the magnitude of the issue potentially affecting scientific publishing,' and suggests that it is time to 'pursue a progressive break-up of the company.'

He continues, stating: "If — and I need to emphasize if — the outcome of the budget constraints on academic libraries is a few years of slow or no revenue growth, the publishers will have, at the very least, to take costs out aggressively."

If libraries are to avoid being in denial, we would admit that this if is looking more and more of a reality across the ARL. The next few years could be a time of change in scholarly communications, and we will need input from faculty and students as we move forward.

A note about IEEE Xplore® and Google

From the IEEE:
 
"Dear IEEE Xplore Subscriber,  
 
Recently we at IEEE discovered something about our IEEE Xplore usage patterns that we want
to pass on to you.  
 
We learned that the majority of IEEE Xplore article metadata records had been eliminated from
Google search results.  This means that anyone attempting to search for IEEE articles by using
Google or Google Scholar would be less likely to find IEEE content.  Because half of all IEEE
Xplore traffic comes through Google searches, particularly among our corporate customers, this
could result in a significant drop in your IEEE Xplore usage.  
 
If this sounds familiar, it is because we reported to you a similar issue that occurred late last year
that impacted IEEE discoverability in Google search results.  
 
In investigating the current issue, we learned that Google had changed its indexing policy
regarding IEEE Xplore. In April 2010, Google decided to discard their previous IEEE Xplore
metadata index and completely rebuild an index of over 2.5 million IEEE Xplore metadata records.  
 
Unfortunately, this action may have impacted the ability of your users to find IEEE Xplore articles
in Google and may have affected your IEEE Xplore usage over the past few months.  
 
We have contacted Google to correct this situation by:
1.  Suggesting ways they can accelerate this indexing process. To this end, we have made
additional IEEE Xplore bandwidth available to the Google crawler.
2.  We are also trying to establish improved publisher relations with Google in order to find ways
to minimize the impact on IEEE Xplore users when these situations occur in the future.  
 
We hope that the entirety of IEEE Xplore metadata will soon be discoverable again via Google."

 

From SPARC:

The Federal Research Public Access Act (H.R. 5037) has been referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the House of Representatives, where the Chairman is actively considering holding an open hearing on the bill. More information about the bill (FRPAA), which is the broadest proposal to ensure free online access to the results of the U.S. $60 billion annual investment in research, is online at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa.
YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED! If you’re a constituent of one of the Members of this committee, please contact your Representative to encourage his or her co-sponsorship of the bill and support for the hearing. Action is requested as soon as possible and NO LATER THAN AUGUST 9. Act now through the ATA Action Center (http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/sparc).

Non-constituents are also encouraged to write to Chairman Edolphus Towns to request an open hearing on the bill:

Chairman Edolphus Towns (DEM-NY-10th)

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

U.S. House of Representatives

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Via fax: (202) 225-4784

Publishing and Science Education

This month's issue of ASEE's Prism has two articles that caught our attention. The first discusses changes in the publishing world, particularly the textbook publishing world. This is an issue we deal with everyday in libraries; journal and conference literature has moved online, of course, but the monograph world has been a little slower in doing so. We've moved thousands upon thousands of our book collection online over the last few years, and would like your opinion of e-books (as there will certainly be more to come!).

The second article pertains to Prof. Carl Wieman's efforts on science education. As librarians, we have to wonder how the two may or may not be related? As publishing, teaching, and learning move into a digital environment, what is the effect on students and their ability to find and utilize information effectively and independently? 

Just an interesting question for a Tuesday.

Green Energy Portal Launched for Quick Public Access to Renewable Energy Research

From OSTI: "Green energy-related research and development (R&D) results are now more easily accessible through a new online portal, DOE Green Energy <http://www.osti.gov/greenenergy>.  The free public portal was launched on the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day by the U.S. Department of Energy<http://www.energy.gov/> (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information <http://www.osti.gov/> (OSTI) within the Office of Science."

Many reports from this portal are available through the library.  If you find one you need, just ask us!