NVivo software now available at YSJ

Are you using qualitative research? YSJ now offers you access to NVivo software, which might help with the floods of data you're managing. NVivo is designed to assist with many aspects of the qualitative research process, specifically note-taking, interview transcription, memoing, and file management. It’s recently been improved to allow analysis of data generated by social media such as Twitter and Facebook and also allows more seamless integration between a variety of mobile devices.

More on NVivo can be found here http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo_features-and-benefits.aspx

Dan Troke from ILS will be offering training to interested researchers shortly. Leave a comment or send us an email if you'd like to be on the list.

Altmetrics for YSJ Researchers

In our Research, Social Media, and Getting Published workshop this term, we discussed shaping and enhancing your online presence in line with standard academic publishing. One of the traditional - and problematic - measures of a journal's visibility, reputation, and overall impact is the 'impact factor' (others metrics include the Hirsch Index and the Eigenfactor).

But what if your research is tweeted, blogged about, frequently uploaded to Mendeley, liked on Facebook, captured with CiteULike etc.? Increasingly, these 'impact factors,' commonly called 'Altmetrics,' are tracked and taken seriously by the academy and academic publishers. Altmetrics are calculated based on an article's (or preprint's) DOI.

As ever, popular interest in research and academic interest in research are different from one another. High volume for social media likely points to a piece of research being controversial (issues regarding gender, climate change, stem cell research etc.), or to it making good headline material, or possibly that it involves sneezing pandas or a puppy wearing a hat. It's important, therefore, to see the location and quality of the buzz. Is the research discussed on academic blogs, uploaded and downloaded frequently from Data Dryad, Mendeley or your institutional repository? That's a good sign.

Interested in more?
#altmetrics on Twitter
A guide to Altmetrics from University of Newcastle library
An Altmetrics bibliography by Charles W. Bailey Jr.

Keeping track of your reading workshop

The final 'Keeping track of your reading' workshop took place today. Slides, links and more information on the resources demoed are here.

We've had some feedback that you'd be interested in this type of workshop again next term. Is it true? Please use the comments below to let us know what you think. 

The open access button

Have you heard of the Open Access Button project?  Supported by Medsin-UK and the Right to Research Coalition, it allows researchers to send an alert to the project organisers when they hit a paywall when trying to access research information online.  This data allows the group to track and map the impact of paywalls and therefore contribute to the wider open access debate.

Essentially, if you are interested in contributing, all you need to do is download their bookmarklet for your Internet browser and click on it whenever you find you have been denied access to an article without payment.  Please read their aims and objectives and make sure you are happy to proceed before you do!

If you would like an introduction to the more general open access debate, this video outlines some of the key issues.

Discover Discover this Thursday 13/3 at 11:00

How well does Discover work for you? Are you getting the results you need and want? Making ILS's Discovery tool work for you is the topic of this week's drop in workshop for researchers; we'd love to see you there. Thursday, 13/3 at 11:00 in FS219. Sign up through EventBrite.

We've also turned our weekly midday  Academic Clinic into a Discover Clinic, so please drop by the ground floor of Fountains then if you can't make the Thursday timeslot.

Theses - searching for and getting hold of them

Whilst you are writing your own thesis, there are a number of reasons why you may wish to find and read those of others.  ILS has a number of services which can help you to do this.

YSJ Theses
ILS holds all of the PhD theses that have been submitted by previous students here.  They are for use in the Fountains building only, but can be found in the researcher area.  This is the glass box on the ground floor of the library, also containing the display of Victorian children's books.  Just ask at the Question Point if you would like to consult them - there is also a PC and workspace in the area, so you can read those you have chosen.

Dissertations and Theses: UK and Ireland
This is a search tool, formerly known as Index to Theses, which allows you to search for theses from other institutions.  It is accessible from the ILS website, on the databases page.

EThOS
A British Library service, EThOS allows you to both search for and also download theses (if the author/owning institution has agreed to this).  You can create your own account as a researcher and this will allow you to read and save theses where permissions have been given.

OAIster
This search tool allows you to look at documents which have been placed in open access online repositories and these can often contain theses.  Use the advanced search option to restrict content type to 'Theses/dissertations'.


Inter-library loans
If you are unable to download a thesis from EThOS, our inter-library loans service may be able to obtain a reference only copy it from the original institution.  Contact them for more details.

Sconul Access
It may be possible to consult a thesis in the library of the original institution.  You can use your Sconul Access rights, which allow you to consult and borrow from other university libraries, to do so.