The ASTM Digital Library site will be undergoing planned maintenance, and will be unavailable beginning Friday, February 24, 2023, at 11:00 p.m. AST ending Friday, February 24, 2023 at approximately 12:00 p.m. AST . ASTM apologizes for any inconvenience.
DMP Assistant Platform Upgrade
The DMP Assistant will be unavailable from 9am to 6pm AST on February 22nd, 2023 for a system upgrade.
Any work that DMP Assistant users have completed prior to the shutdown will be migrated to the new 3.1.0 platform, along with any other existing data management plans (DMPs), templates and user data. Users should save and/or export any existing DMPs/data that they may require during the shutdown period. Once launched, users will be able to access the DMP Assistant 3.1.0 service at the same URL (https://assistant.portagenetwork.ca/) with their existing credentials, and new users may create accounts as normal.
The upgraded version of the DMP Assistant will improve security and user experience, and come with several exciting new features, including a new “Research Output” tab that allows users to:
- Specify the type (e.g., dataset, software, image, etc.), name and a description of the output, size (if applicable), whether or not it contains sensitive information, what the initial access level will be (e.g., open, restricted, closed), and the anticipated publication date
- Select an appropriate license from the SPDX License List
- Select any metadata standards that will be followed from the RDA Metadata standards catalog
- Select the repositories they intend to preserve the object in from a dropdown list powered by re3data
For more information or any questions, please contact Shiloh Williams, Product Lead, Data Management Planning, Digital Research Alliance of Canada, at support@portagenetwork.ca.
February 13-17 Love Data Week 2023 – “Data: Agent of Change”
In honor of ICPSR’s International Love Data Week 2023, which has the theme of “Data: Agent of Change”, Dalhousie Libraries will be hosting a series of online presentations aimed at giving you insights into varied aspects of working with data. Whether you are a new, experienced, secret, or not so secret “data agent”, you may very well find the right tool or approach that you need during a Love Data Week event. Taking place from February 13-17, presentations include:
- Data Management Planning: the basics of writing a plan with the DMP assistant
- Going Beyond PUMFs with the ARDC: what does it take to access the rich collection of Canadian microdata held by the RDCs?
- Geospatial Data in a Changing World. Everything happens somewhere.
- Equipping Yourself for Excellent Excel Practices: what to do and consider before you even get started.
To register for these (free) online sessions presented by Dalhousie Libraries and other organizations, check out our Love Data Week 2023 Research Guide. You will find Event details and registration information in our Events section.
Borealis Upgrade February 1st
Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository, will be upgraded February 1. The platform, including Dalhousie Dataverse @ Borealis, will be unavailable from approximately 11 am – 5 pm Atlantic Time.
This upgrade should bring exciting new features, including:
- New standardized Creative Commons licenses
- Improved file upload handling and messaging
- Accessibility improvements
- Bug fixes
- And more
To test these features, feel free to use their demo sandbox environment.
For more details reach out to the Borealis team with questions or feedback.
Congratulations to James Boxall
Please join Dalhousie Libraries in congratulating James Boxall for being awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee medal in December. This medal was awarded to James to recognize his career of service to geography and geographic education in Nova Scotia and Canada, of which a few highlights follow.
James was instrumental in the creation of the Canadian Council for Geographic Education, now Canadian Geographic Education, an organization which supports a network of over 20,000 teachers. He is also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Past-President of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives, and co-chair of the Canadian Roundtable on Geomatics.
James has been with the Dalhousie Libraries for 31 years in a number of roles related to geography and is currently the library’s GIS Specialist and Map Curator. He has developed and taught courses in Human Geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Geospatial Information Management in the School of Information Management, and Marine Spatial Planning in the Marine Affairs Program. James has been published widely and his geospatial and geography teaching led to his involvement with projects in Canada, the UK, Mexico, and Vietnam, often as co-chair of the International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography.
Congratulations to James on receiving this significant award in recognition of all he does at Dalhousie and beyond.
Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
At the end of 2022, Dalhousie University will no longer have access to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). This tool is best known for the Journal Impact Factor (JIF). JCR is a subscription product, and its owner has arbitrarily decided to allow subscriptions only in combination with another of its pricey databases, Web of Science. Dalhousie ceased subscribing to Web of Science after internal review found the journal coverage was already available through other, more cost-effective subscriptions. Fortunately, while the JIF is widely recognized, it is not unique. Other products are available through Dal Libraries that serve much the same purpose.
First, what is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF)?
The JIF was developed in the 1960s as a tool to help decide what journals should be included in the new Science Citation Index. It was developed to help librarians see what journals researchers were consulting. It was not in itself meant to determine quality of those journals. The JIF is calculated by averaging the number of citations to the journal’s contents as a whole over a two-year period. Only citations found in journals indexed in the Web of Science database count. The JIF does not look at citation counts at the article level – a few highly cited articles can sway the average.
It is worth knowing that citation counts are often used as a proxy for quality or “impact” but authors might cite an article for a variety of reasons, so metrics based on citation counts do have limitations.
In addition, not every academic journal is included in JCR. Only about 12,000 journals have a JIF calculated in JCR – a small fraction of the number of peer-reviewed journals currently publishing.
What is the JIF used for?
To identify a potential publisher of my work
The JIF is often used to help identify journals in which authors might aspire to publish. There are several alternatives to this.
- Scopus. Scopus has a metric called Citescore which is found by following the “Sources” tab on the Scopus homepage. CiteScore is a similar calculation to the JIF with two differences.
- The first is that it looks at the average number of citations over the previous four years instead of two.
- The second difference is that it considers citations found in journals indexed in Scopus instead of Web of Science. Because the two databases cover much the same content while Scopus is larger, citation counts tend to be a bit higher in Scopus.
- The databases specific to your discipline. While Scopus is a general academic database with emphasis on the sciences, other databases can be used to identify appropriate outlets for your work. By searching for your research topic is a subject-specific database (such as MLA (Modern Language Association, or AGRICOLA) you can see where other researchers are publishing their work. This has the advantage of helping to ensure that your article will be findable to people in your field.
To check the integrity of a journal
The JIF can also be used to determine whether a journal is “predatory”. Journals that lack integrity often advertise that they have various “Impact Factors” as a way to deceive authors. A quick way to check the veracity of these claims is by going to the recognized source – JCR. However, that is by no means the only way a journal can or should be assessed. Checking to see if the journal in question is indexed (included) in databases such as Scopus, Academic Search Premier, and the databases commonly used in your field is a way to not only see if a journal is possibly trustworthy, but also if publishing there will ensure the accessibility of your work. For more information, see https://dal.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=257122&p=2830098
To assess the quality of research
Unfortunately, the JIF is often used to access the quality of the work of individual researchers. We say unfortunately, because this is not an appropriate use of this metric. As the very first statement of the internationally recognized San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) says, “1. Do not use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist’s contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions.” This is because the many limitations of citations as a proxy for quality, combined with the limitations of journal level metrics do not provide reliable insights into the value of work at the individual level.
Please contact one of Dal Libraries if you have questions about using Scopus or other subject specific databases to help you select a journal to publish in, look up a CiteScore, or have general questions about our resources.
Contact us:
W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library
902-717-5244
kellogg@dal.ca
Killam Memorial Library (Arts & Social Sciences, Computer Science, Management, Sciences)
902-494-3611
killmref@dal.ca
MacRae Library (Agriculture)
902-893-6669
macrae.library@dal.ca
Sexton Design & Technology Library (Architecture & Planning, Engineering)
902-494-3240
sexton.library@dal.ca
Law Library
902-494-2124
lawref@dal.ca
Holiday Hours at the Dalhousie Libraries
Sir James Dunn Law Library
Wednesday, December 21: 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thursday, December 22: 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Regular hours resume on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.
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W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library
Monday, December 19–Thursday, December 22: 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Regular hours resume on Tuesday, January, 3 2023.
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Kellogg Learning Library Commons
Wednesday, December 21–Thursday, December 22: 7:30 a.m.–6 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 7:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Regular hours resume on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.
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Killam Memorial Library
Wednesday, December 21 & Thursday, December 22: 7:30 a.m.–6 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 7:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Tuesday, January 3–Friday, January 6: 7:30 a.m.–6 p.m.
Saturday, January 7 & Sunday, January 8: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Regular hours resume on Monday, January 9, 2023.
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MacRae Library
Saturday, December 17: 12–5 p.m.
Sunday, December 18: 12–9 p.m.
Monday, December 19–Thursday, December 22: 8 a.m.–6 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Tuesday, January 3–Friday, January 6: 8 a.m.–6 p.m.
Saturday, January 7: CLOSED
Sunday, January 8: 12–5 p.m.
Regular hours resume Monday, January 9.
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Sexton Design & Technology Library
Tuesday, December 20–Thursday, December 22: 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Tuesday, January 3–Friday, January 6: 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Saturday, January 7 & Sunday, January 8: CLOSED
Regular hours resume Monday, January 9, 2023
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Wallace McCain Learning Commons
Wednesday, December 21 & Thursday, December 22: 8 a.m.–6 p.m.
Friday, December 23: 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
December 24–January 2: CLOSED
Tuesday, January 3–Friday, January 6: 8 a.m.–6 p.m.
Saturday, January 7 & Sunday, January 8: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Regular hours resume Monday, January 9.
Welcome, Robin!
Please join us in welcoming Robin Bishop to the Dalhousie Libraries. Robin is the new Manager, Acquisitions and Content Management on the Resources Team.
Robin comes to us with a strong background in academic libraries, having worked as the Manager, Library Services at the Higher Colleges of Technology Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates where she provided leadership for 40+ technical services and campus library staff to deliver services, training, and access to 100+ databases across 14 campus libraries, serving over 20,000 students. Prior to that, she also worked as a Library Supervisor in Dubai, UAE at the Higher Colleges of Technology where she led the strategic planning process, library services, and the annual acquisitions budget across two Dubai libraries for 4,000+ students and 300 staff.
Prior to her time in the UAE, Robin worked in California where she guided librarians and library staff through the design and implementation of customized computing environments around the world, and in Washington where she was part of a team that provided computers to public libraries in low-income communities for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Robin holds a Master of Library & Information Studies from the University of Alberta as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of New Brunswick.
Congratulations and Farewell, Andrew Finch!
On January 13, 2023, after more than 40 years at the Dalhousie University Libraries, Andrew Finch will begin his retirement. Due to vacation, his last day of work will be Friday, November 25.
Andrew’s career at the Libraries started as a student employee in September 1979. On December 16, 1982, he accepted the position of Evening Circulation Supervisor in the Circulation Department of the Killam Library. After four years in the evening position Andrew accepted a promotion, in May of 1986, to the Reserve Library Assistant position in the MacDonald Science Library, Circulation Department.
In August 1989, the Science Library Circulation merged with the Killam Circulation Department and Andrew’s duties evolved into Circulation Database Assistant. By the early 1990s, Andrew was working in Circulation as well as Technical Services where he provided collections support and worked with Government documents. In 1997, Andrew, along with other members of the access services and technical services teams, played an important role in the very successful integration of the Maritime School of Social Work Collection. This integration took a phenomenal effort and was extremely well done.
Andrew is finishing up a long career in the Libraries as a full-time Library Assistant in the Access Services Department of the Killam Library. Please join us in wishing him all the best as he begins this new chapter of his life.
The Joy of Reclaiming Family Medicines for Yourself, Your Community and for Future Generations with Richard Van Camp
Please join us this Friday, November 25 at 3:45 p.m. as we partner with the English Department to host Tłı̨chǫ Dene author and storyteller Richard Van Camp as part of their Friday Speaker Series.
Richard’s talk is titled The Joy of Reclaiming Family Medicines for Yourself, Your Community and for Future Generations, and it will take place on Zoom.
Richard describes his talk as follows: “Please join us for this lively conversation with Tłı̨chǫ Dene author and storyteller Richard Van Camp as he shares his journey of reclaiming family recipes, photos, videos, lullabies, songs, names, cooking techniques and more. We promise uplifting stories and everyone who attend will receive gifts from Richard just for being the sweet miracle that you are.”
In addition to the gifts Richard has prepared for all attendees, the organizers will also have a draw for a few of Richard’s books.
Link to register: https://tinyurl.com/Van-Camp