What does Academia_edu’s success mean for Open Access? The data-driven world of search engines and social networking

What does Academia_edu’s success mean for Open Access? The data-driven world of search engines and social networking

With over 36 million visitors each month,
the massive popularity of Academia.edu is uncontested. But posting on
Academia.edu is far from being ethically and politically equivalent to
using an institutional open access repository, argues Gary Hall.
Academia.edu’s financial rationale rests on exploiting the data flows
generated by the academics who use the platform. The open access
movement is in danger of being outflanked, if not rendered irrelevant by
centralised entities like Academia.edu who can capture, analyse and
exploit extremely large amounts of data.

The ResearchGate Score: a good example of a bad metric

The ResearchGate Score: a good example of a bad metric

According to ResearchGate, the academic social networking site,
their RG Score is “a new way to measure your scientific reputation”.
With such high aims, Peter Kraker, Katy Jordan and Elisabeth Lex
take a closer look at the opaque metric. By reverse engineering the
score, they find that a significant weight is linked to ‘impact points’ –
a similar metric to the widely discredited journal impact factor. Transparency
in metrics is the only way scholarly measures can be put into context
and the only way biases – which are inherent in all socially created
metrics – can be uncovered.

Network-based Citation Metrics: Eigenfactor vs. SJR

Network-based Citation Metrics: Eigenfactor vs. SJR

Is the influence of a journal best measured by the number of citations it attracts or by the citations it attracts from other influential journals?

Number of Female Researchers in Germany Has Increased By 25 Percent Over the Past Five Years

Number of Female Researchers in Germany Has Increased By 25 Percent Over the Past Five Years

Over the past five years, the number of female researchers in Germany has grown far more rapidly than that of male researchers. Female-only publications are the most internationally collaborative while mixed gender publications are more interdisciplinary than the mono-gender ones, highlights a new study by Elsevier.

QS University Rankings: Top 50 Under 50 2015

QS University Rankings: Top 50 Under 50 2015

 A ranking of the world’s top 50 universities under 50 years old, based on the latest QS World University Rankings®.
Use the interactive table to filter the results by country, or choose
from the options in the left-hand column to sort the institutions by
ranking and by age.

SEA scientific Open data

SEANOE

Seanoe (SEA scieNtific Open data Edition) is a publisher of scientific data in the field of marine sciences. It is operated by Sismer within the framework of the Pôle Océan.

Data published by SEANOE are available free. They can be used in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons license selected by the author of data. Seance contributes to Open Access / Open Science movement for a free access for everyone to all scientific data financed by public funds for the benefit of research.

Standing on the shoulders of the Google giant: Sustainable discovery and Google Scholar's comprehensive coverage.

Standing on the shoulders of the Google giant: Sustainable discovery and Google Scholar's comprehensive coverage.

The 11th anniversary of Google Scholar passed yesterday. Max Kemman
provides an overview of the growth and impact of the platform and also
looks at why Google Scholar is virtually unrivaled. The scholarly
community might ask whether it is entirely desirable that Google plays
such an important role in the scholarly workflow. Not only does Google
Scholar have a known effect on discovery and citation of articles, it
could well be shaping academic writing and evaluation. 

It's official: Anil Potti faked cancer research data, say Feds

It's official: Anil Potti faked cancer research data, say Feds - Retraction Watch

Following five years of scrutiny, more than ten retractions, multiple settled lawsuits, and medical board reprimands,
we may finally have some resolution on the case of Anil Potti, the
once-rising cancer research star who resigned from Duke in 2010.

Impact of Social Sciences – altmetrics

Impact of Social Sciences – Search Results – altmetrics



The LSE  Impact Blog has a number of interesting articles looking at the background and potential for Altmetrics in Academia .

Science Week Events 2015 at Maynooth University

Science Week



Lots of great events including:

 "Entertaining Science & Circus Skills" with Dr. Ken Farquhar (http://www.dodifferent.co.uk/)



Lectures: "From Maynooth into Space with the European Space Agency", "Passwords and Privacy: Designing a Future where your Secrets are Safe", "Your Alarm Clock and You: the Science of Social Jetlag"


ROBOT SOCCER in the library


Tours:The Russell Library and the Science Museum will be open to the public

When are journal metrics useful? A balanced call for the contextualized and transparent use of all publication metrics

When are journal metrics useful? A balanced call for the contextualized and transparent use of all publication metrics

The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) has yet to achieve widespread institutional support in the UK. Elizabeth Gadd
digs further into the slow uptake. Although there is growing acceptance
that the Journal Impact Factor is subject to significant limitations,
DORA feels rather negative in tone: an anti-journal metric tirade. There
may be times when a journal metric, sensibly used, is the right tool
for the job. By signing up to DORA, institutions may feel unable to use
metrics at all.

Top ten tips for getting your work the attention it deserves

Top ten tips for getting your work the attention it deserves



Altmetrics offer a record of the wider attention and engagement that academic work generates and these broad indicators can provide a helpful starting point for understanding the influence and impact of your research. Danielle Padula and Catherine Williams provide ten simple steps for researchers looking to boost online engagement and wider attention of academic research.

Open Science Prize

Open Science Prize

 The Open Science Prize is a partnership between the Wellcome Trust, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to unleash the power of open content and data to advance biomedical research and its application for health benefit.

QS World University Rankings® 2015/16 – Out Now!

QS World University Rankings® 2015/16 – Out Now!

Today’s release sees the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) retain the top spot in the QS World University Rankings® for the fourth year running, with Harvard University climbing two places to rank second, followed by the University of Cambridge and Stanford University in joint third.

Essential PhD tips: 10 articles all doctoral students should read

Essential PhD tips: 10 articles all doctoral students should read

100 psychology experiments repeated, less than half successful

100 psychology experiments repeated, less than half successful

Since November 2011, the Center for Open Science has been involved in an ambitious project: to repeat 100 psychology experiments and see whether the results are the same the second time round. 



The full results can be found in Science/AAAS

Remains of major new prehistoric stone monument at Durrington Walls discovered

The "Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project"

The remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument have been discovered less than 3 kilometres from Stonehenge. Using cutting edge, multi-sensor technologies the "Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project" has revealed evidence for a large stone monument hidden beneath the bank of the later Durrington Walls 'super-henge'.

Cracking the (Morse) Code at Maynooth University

Cracking the (Morse) Code

The Morse Code system was invented in the 1830s by American artist Samuel Morse. This system of electrical telegraphy utilised a series of dots and dashes to represent letters of the alphabet and numerical values.  The College Museum houses an interesting collection of morse signalling keys, receivers and other objects associated with telegraphy.

The destruction of a 3000 year old bog roadway in Co. Westmeath | Irish Archaeology

The destruction of a 3000 year old bog roadway in Co. Westmeath | Irish Archaeology

A disturbing report from An Taisce concerning the destruction of a circa 3000 wooden roadway in Co. Westmeath.

10 steps to PhD failure

10 steps to PhD failure

Given the stakes involved, one peculiar aspect of graduate school is the number of students who seem indifferent to its pitfalls. Year after year many run headlong, like lemmings, off the same cliffs as their predecessors. Yet a good share of these people ignore or are even hostile towards the advice that might help them avoid screwing up.

Heritage Week at the National Museum of Science and Ecclesiology! Maynooth

Heritage Week at the National Museum of Science and Ecclesiology!

Come and view the largest collection of scientific instruments on public display in Ireland!

Most of this material was manufactured in the Dublin area between 1880 and 1920 and exported all over the world. The Museum is centred around the Rev Prof. Nicholas Callan, inventor of the induction coil. There is also a large collection of ecclesistical items on display and one of only two death masks of Daniel O’Connell.

Maynooth Library - Heritage Week Events

Event Details - Heritage Week



 Letterpress Demonstration

This demonstration will be lead by Designer and Letterpress Printmaker, Mary Plunkett. Armed with a table top press and a case of type, she will give some background to the development of moveable type and demonstrate how it has been set and printed since the 15th century. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to set a line of type and print on an Adana table top press. Booking is essential as places are limited, please email: library.specialcollections@nuim.ie.

Russell Library Tour

The Russell Library houses the historical collections of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth which was founded in 1795 as a seminary for the education of Irish priests. The reading room was designed by renowned British architect and designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52) and completed in the year 1861. The Library contains approximately 34,000 printed works dating from the 16th to the mid-19th century across a range of subjects including: theology, mathematics, science, geography, and history. Other important collections include: medieval manuscripts, archival material and incunabula (pre-1501 printing). The Library also holds a large and important body of Gaelic manuscripts, representing a rich tradition of history, religion and literature from the early 15th to the late 19th century. - See more at: http://www.heritageweek.ie/whats-on/event-details?EventID=1643#sthash.4ubv4EVl.dpuf

Letterpress Demonstration

Letterpress Demonstration

Altmetric Top 100 - 2014

Altmetric Top 100 - 2014

This is a interesting list of  which academic research caught the public imagination in 2014? But does this have anything to tell us about the academic merit of these articles or should we follow David Colquhouns suggestion in his "Improbable Science" Blog and ignore altmetrics and other bibliometric nightmares !

Metric Tide - Higher Education Funding Council for England

Metric Tide - Higher Education Funding Council for England

The Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management was set up in April 2014 to investigate the current and potential future roles that quantitative indicators can play in the assessment and management of research. Its report, ‘The Metric Tide’, was published in July 2015 and is available below. 

If We don’t Know What Citations Mean, What Does it Mean when We Count Them?

If We don’t Know What Citations Mean, What Does it Mean when We Count Them?

Do citations necessarily indicate the significance of the cited publication in question? And if we don’t really know what individual citations mean, why do we think we can draw important meaning from their aggregation?

Scholar, google thyself.

Scholar, google thyself.



Interesting piece this as the authors ponders:

" How do I look to someone who wants to academic stalk ME on Google?

How you appear to yourself in a search is not necessarily how others will see you because Google creates a ‘filter bubble’ around each user. Basically Google knows who you are, where you are and what you like and will shape the search results to help you."

‘Star Wars’-style planet found in a galaxy far, far away

‘Star Wars’-style planet found in a galaxy far, far away

Irish astronomers have helped discover a planet orbiting a rare double star, much like the fictional planet Tatooine in the Star Wars film franchise.

2014 State of the Climate: Highlights

2014 State of the Climate: Highlights | NOAA Climate.gov

In 2014, the most essential indicators of Earth’s changing climate
continued to reflect trends of a warming planet, with several  markers
such as rising land and ocean temperature, sea levels and greenhouse
gases ─ setting new records.  These key findings and others can be
found in the State of the Climate in 2014 report released online today by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). 

Metrics: how to handle them responsibly

Metrics: how to handle them responsibly

Amid concerns about the growing use – and abuse – of quantitative measures in universities, a major new review examines the role of metrics in the assessment of research, from the REF to performance management

The Carlow Bypass: An Archaeological Journey

The Carlow Bypass: An Archaeological Journey

Academia: A dream profession? - QPOL

Academia: A dream profession? - QPOL

Who’d be an academic? Plenty of people, it seems! And yet as recent research shows, it appears as though the stress and pressure of academic life has never been greater. These problems tend to remain under the radar, unspoken and hidden. It is important to start highlighting them, although normal academic life doesn’t offer many opportunities. In a recent project,  Dr Kate Kenny (Queens) and Dr Sarah Gilmore (Portsmouth) developed a new approach to research that allows collective reflection on these issues.

Irish scientists discover new coral habitat off Kerry coast

Irish scientists discover new coral habitat off Kerry coast

Classic Scholars' Profiles

Classic Scholars' Profiles: Bibliometrics



CLASSIC SCHOLARS' PROFILES: Bibliometrics & Scientometrics is a portal from which you’ll be able to access the bibliographic profiles- created on Google Scholar Citations- of 10 scholars, now deceased, who played an outstanding role in the creation and consolidation of this field. It is for this reason that it was decided to use the denomination “classic scholar”.

How does a scientist's h-index change over time?

How does a scientist's h-index change over time?

Since its introduction a decade ago the h-index has rapidly become the most frequently used measure of research productivity and citation impact amongst scientists.  It’s far from perfect and has been criticised from a number of perspectives, particularly when used as a blunt tool for assessing a scientist’s “quality”.  Nonetheless it’s a useful measure that allows some comparison within research fields and (I think more importantly) gives individuals one method, amongst any number, of assessing the influence their work is having on their discipline.

Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics

Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics

 Use these ten principles to guide research evaluation, urge Diana Hicks, Paul Wouters and colleagues.


Data are increasingly used to govern science. Research evaluations that were once bespoke and performed by peers are now routine and reliant on metrics1. The problem is that evaluation is now led by the data rather than by judgement. Metrics have proliferated: usually well intentioned, not always well informed, often ill applied. We risk damaging the system with the very tools designed to improve it, as evaluation is increasingly implemented by organizations without knowledge of, or advice on, good practice and interpretation.

Mars might have liquid water

Mars might have liquid water – Niels Bohr Institute - University of Copenhagen

 Researchers have long known that there was water in the form of ice on Mars. Now, new research from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity shows that it is possible that there is liquid water close to the surface of Mars. The explanation is that the substance perchlorate has been found in the soil, which lowers the freezing point so the water does not freeze into ice, but is liquid and present in very salty salt water – a brine. The results are published in the scientific journal Nature.

UK university leaders lobby Brussels on research cuts

UK university leaders lobby Brussels on research cuts

 More than 50 UK university leaders will travel to Brussels on Monday to lobby European policymakers against possible cuts to research funding.

The group, led by Prof Sir Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor of Exeter University, fears for the future of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research fund.

2014 Research Highlights

2014 Research Highlights - NIH Research Matters - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

2014 Research Highlights from the National Insitutes of Health: U.S.Department of Health & Human Services

Mathematical (and Poetic) Offerings From the Land of Saints and Scholars

Mathematical (and Poetic) Offerings From the Land of Saints and Scholars

Interesting aticle which also includes a Reference to the Russell Library and  a piece on De Brún who earned a doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1913, under Émile Picard, and the same year was ordained a priest at the Irish College in Paris. He soon returned to Ireland, first as Professor of Mathematics at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and later as president of University College Galway.

Top 10 authors downloaded from ePrints Feb 2015

Top 10 authors downloaded from ePrints

 An ePrint is an electronic copy of an academic paper. ePrints can be either preprints (a working paper or the version of a paper submitted for peer review) or postprints (the final peer reviewed version, which has been accepted for publishing) or similar material such as book chapters, conference papers, working papers, technical reports and so on.

Maynooth University ePrints Archive is an institutional repository of ePrints which showcases the research output of Maynooth University and St. Patrick's College staff and postgraduate students. This open access ensures the widest possible dissemination and impact for our work in Maynooth and contributes to the growing body of research literature that is now freely available online.

Mars Once Had More Water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean !

NASA Research Suggests Mars Once Had More Water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean | NASA

A primitive ocean on Mars held more water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean, according to NASA scientists who, using ground-based observatories, measured water signatures in the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

Free access to Royal Society Journals until the end of March

350 years of scientific publishing | Royal Society



Philosophical Transactions, first published in 1665, pioneered the concepts of scientific priority and peer review which, together with archiving and dissemination, provide the model for almost 30,000 scientific journals today.
As part of their 350th anniversary celebrations, all Royal Society journals content is free to access until the end of March 2015.

Better use of antibiotics - €1 million Horizon Prize !

Research & Innovation - Horizon Prizes - Better use of Antibiotics

This €1 million prize addresses the issue of the unnecessary use of antibiotics, which is contributing to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. The challenge is to develop a rapid test that will allow healthcare providers to distinguish at the point of care between patients with upper respiratory tract infections that require antibiotics and those that can be treated safely without antibiotics.

The Programmable City | How is the city translated into software and data, and how does software reshape the city?

The Programmable City | How is the city translated into software and data, and how does software reshape the city?

In November 2014 members of the Programmable City team from Maynooth University visited the Smart City Expo and Congress in Barcelona.  The organisers have now posted up videos of all of the sessions on their YouTube channel.  Together they make interesting viewing for anyone interested in understanding what is happening with regards to creating smart cities.  Rob Kitchin and Gavin McArdle presented a paper at the Congress entitled, ‘Dublin Dashboard: Open and real-time data and visualizations for citizens, government and companies’.

The focus on bibliometrics makes papers less useful

The focus on bibliometrics makes papers less useful

Forcing research to fit the mould of high-impact journals weakens it. Hiring decisions should be based on merit, not impact factor, says Reinhard Werner.

How do we recognize a good scientist? There is an entire industry — bibliometrics — that would have us believe that it is easy: count journal articles, sort them according to the impact factors of the journals, and count all the citations.

Irish horse cheats death through the appliance of science

Irish horse cheats death through the appliance of science

A promising young racehorse facing the prospect of being put down was rescued from death by a bone repair technology developed by scientists in Ireland. The thoroughbred’s jaw was rebuilt and the two-year-old filly is performing well on the racetrack.

The bone repair technology, called HydroxyColl, allows lost or damaged bone to be regrown. It was developed by researchers in the Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research Centre (Amber) a collaboration involving Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. 

Protein to prevent diabetes discovered by Maynooth University Scientists

Pellino3 protein may prevent obesity-driven diabetes, find Maynooth University scientists

Maynooth University scientists have identified a protein in the body that may have the potential to prevent the development of obesity-driven diabetes.

Diabetes is one of the world's fastest growing epidemics, with an estimated 225,000 people in Ireland alone suffering from the disease.  Obesity is a key driver of Type 2 Diabetes, given that excess abdominal fat causes fat cells to release a 'pro-inflammatory' chemical which can make the body less sensitive to the insulin it produces and disrupt the ability of insulin-responsive cells to fulfill their function.

Eco Eye, Series 12 (2014)

Eco Eye, Series 12 (2014)

The Eco Eye series twelve ran for 10 episodes, starting on the 7th of January 2014. Click on the link to see a brief description of each episode followed by the episode itself in HD.

Episode One ‘Irish food?’: Investigates Ireland’s food supply and asks why we import almost as much food as we export and often the very same foodstuffs. Across Ireland we meet organic food producers, local retailers as well as supermarkets as we examine how secure our food supply is and how much of our food is indeed Irish.

Biomed Central Infectious Diseases – review of 2014

BMC Infectious Diseases – review of 2014

Highlighted tpics include Bacterial & fungal diseases, Hepatitis & co-infections, HIV & co-infections,Parasitological diseases,Sexually transmitted diseases, Vaccines, and Viral diseases.

Hubble returns to 'old friends' for 25th Anniversary

Hubble returns to 'old friends' 

The Hubble Space Telescope, which in 2015 completes 25 years in orbit, has gathered dramatic new views of two well-known celestial objects. Revisiting one of its earliest and most famous photos, a new view of the Eagle Nebula shows its "Pillars of Creation" in more detail than ever before. And a composite of 13,000 shots of our neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy becomes the telescope's biggest ever image. Both were unveiled in Seattle at an American Astronomical Society meeting.