ICML 2009: Meeting Room 3 Session 14

Theme: Publishing trends & challenges

Time: 14.15-15.30
Date: Wednesday 2nd September 2009
Chair: Scott Plutchak

Step-by-step: an inter-disciplinary project to improve quality in writing peer reviewed scientific articles
Eleonora I Belletti, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Arcispedale S. Anna di Ferrara, Italy

Eleonora Belletti is Head librarian of the scientific biomedical digital library at the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Arcispedale S. Anna in Ferrara, Italy. She earned a BS degree in literature and humanities from the University of Ferrara with a thesis in historical scientific librarian disciplines. She is product trainer for Italy for Emerald Publishing.

Abstract:
The first edition of the "Step-by-Step" Project has been held at the Digital Biomedical Library of the Public Hospital in Ferrara Italy. The project which represents the joint venture of a number of public and private institutions operating in different fields aimed at developing a framework for high-level expertise in preparing top level medical research papers. As such it represents the first trial of this kind in Italy. The first edition of the Project is in due course presently and involves several medical libraries pertaining to hospitals and health institutions from northern Italy for a total of 30 participants. A whole set of international peer reviewed open-access Journals provided support to the event as well. Participants to the course revealed great interest in getting the necessary know-how to produce a manuscript which can make the difference and that results more suitable for review and publication on international medicine journals. The overall feedback of the Step-by-Step course has been highly positive and encouraging as testified by the number of scientific papers that were edited by participants throughout the course. At the end of the course more than 75% of the audience have submitted a paper, either as a single author or in co-authorship, for publication to a Journal of the BMC compartment. The encouraging results carried out over the first edition has made Organizers take the decision of presenting a second edition of this course next year.

Deep indexing of illustrations to reveal hidden data in the scholarly literature: CSA Illustrata
Roger Tritton, Proquest, United Kingdom

Roger is the Director, Product Management, in the Dialog department at Proquest, based in the UK

Abstract:
Huge amounts of valuable data is held in illustrations within the scholarly literature – in graphs, maps, photographs, tables, etc. But, traditional search tools bypass image objects held within research articles. This presentation describes how the CSA Illustrata product uses “deep indexing” of illustrations to find relevant research and critical data that might otherwise remain hidden. The presentation will cover how the CSA Illustrata metadata is specified to allow users to find the most relevant illustrations and the most relevant research data. We will also present ways of using CSA Illustrata most effectively. The presentation will focus on the specific application of CSA Illustrata in a range of health science contexts.

Is electronic always the right choice?
Dr Octavia-Luciana Porumbeanu, Romania

Dr. Octavia-Luciana Porumbeanu is a lecturer at the LIS Department of the Faculty of Letters from the University of Bucharest and the editor of the journal Library and Information Science Research published by the University of Bucharest. She graduated from the LIS Department and has a Master Degree in LIS, and a Ph.D. on The Knowledge Management and the Infodocumentary Structures. Her professional activity includes research projects, books, articles, speciality translations and papers at national and international conferences

Abstract:
Many assumptions are made by health librarians that electronic resources are preferred by medical students and this has led to the development of major electronic collections both in the United Kingdom and the USA. But, is this an erroneous assumption made without asking the users themselves how they consult materials? This paper investigates the situation in Romania where, it appears, medical students using medical library resources prefer paper resources to the available electronic resources. This anomaly was thrown up by a previous study from the author (Porumbeanu et al; 2007) who was investigating the implications of access to electronic information resources for the users of large academic medical libraries in Romania. The results of the study prompted further research and questionnaires were distributed to medical students to obtain more detail on their usage of particular materials. Contributing factors such as culture, content and access were investigated and whether these had any effect on the previous results. From the research it appears that there are various factors underlying the preference for paper resources. The results underline the need for a marketing approach to users when introducing electronic resources to medical libraries.

The next wave of scholarly communication
Keith Webster, The University of Queensland, Australia

Keith Webster has been University Librarian and Director of Learning Services at The University of Queensland since June 2006. Previous posts include University Librarian at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Head of Information Policy at HM Treasury in London and Director of Information Services at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. He is Adjunct Professor of Library Management at Victoria University of Wellington and Honorary Professor of Information Science at City University, London. Keith's interests include strategic planning, learning space design and international trends in academic libraries. He is Convenor of the IFLA 2010 Conference which will be held in Brisbane.

Abstract:
In this presentation, Keith Webster will review recent trends in scholarly communication and consider medium term directions of relevance to libraries.  These will include the uptake of open access, new forms of journal publishing and the transformative impact of the global economic crisis.