Monday 31 August 2015

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.

Wednesday 26 August 2015

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.


Wednesday 19 August 2015

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

Tuesday 18 August 2015

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 !

Friday 14 August 2015

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?

Thursday 13 August 2015

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."

World University Rankings 2023

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 include 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making them the lar...