CrossFire downtime

Emergency Maintenance will affect most Mimas services including CrossFire from 10:00 BST (09:00 GMT) this Thursday, 11 June 2009. A short period of downtime is necessary to remedy a fault - MIMAS hopes no longer than 2 hours.

SciFinder Solutions webpage updated

Includes new content article about CAS’s expanded patent authority coverage and links to the latest podcast in the SciFinder series: Exploring New Methods of Fuel Production from Biomass.

Visit http:www.cas.org/support/scifi/sfsolutions/index.html

CDS petition for continued funding and Shibboleth access

CDS has an iPetition set up to help produce a Statement of Need (SoN) to ensure future EPSRC funding for a national chemical database facility.

http://cds.dl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/news/disp?ipetition

The deadline for production of the SoN is 12th June.


CDS latest newsletter can be found from http://cds.dl.ac.uk/newsletters

As well information about the available datasets, the summer newsletter mentions Shibboleth access to CDS. Using Shibboleth allows access to the CDS using your EASE login details (hover over the red square and choose "Institutional Login ('Shibboleth')."

RIN - advice on paying open access publication charges

Research Information Network and Universities UK have produced a new guide to provide advice on paying open access publication charges: that is, fees levied by some journals for the publication of scholarly articles so that they can be made available free of charge to readers, immediately upon publication.

Paying for open access publication charges: Guidance for higher education and research institutions, publishers and authors

The guide also sets out recommendations for universities and other research institutions, publishers, research funders, and authors.

JISC have also published a report on the economics of open access publishing:
Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models Exploring the costs and benefits

Measuring up - the evolution of impact metrics

15 June 2009, London

Information from the seminar webpages

Run by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, this seminar will explore the evolution of impact metrics.

Research will be presented from the group responsible for the bibliometrics behind HEFCE's Research Excellence Framework (REF) pilot, and will conclude with a consideration of what future metrics might look like, particularly in those areas not currently well served by existing ones.

poster competition for early-career researchers

Research Councils UK is running Perspectives - a poster competition for early-career researchers. Open to postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers funded by the UK Research Councils.

More information at www.britishscienceassociation.org/perspectives

Finalists display their posters at the British Science Festival in September, at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Cash prizes are awarded by a panel of expert judges.

Deadline for applications is 8 May 2009.

Research Information Networks' briefing on scholarly journals in the current financial climate

An outline of three points of pressure on academic library's budgets and what they mean for a University's community are given in:
The Research Information Networks' briefing on scholarly journals in the current financial climate

For an Edinburgh University Library perspective, see Papers 3a and 3c of:
the Library Committee meeting on 11th February 2009.