Please beware, though! RefWorks – as you can see from the message below – are still working on a few details:

“APA 6th style is not a major change from APA 5th output style.  The new version does not use the database name with the exception of ERIC documents (reports).  We have removed the database field from all reference types with the exception of reports.

The new edition of APA has changed the manner in which authors are to be listed in the text and in the reference list. The new reference list guidelines state that when there are seven or more authors there should only be seven authors presented. When there are more than seven authors the first six are to be listed, ellipses added after the sixth, and the last author added at the end.  In order for RefWorks to adhere to these changes, we will need to make modifications to our current Output Style Editor which will require program development.  In the short-term, our new APA style will list all authors and will require the user to manually remove the extra authors and add the ellipses.

The new guidelines allow for the inclusion of up to five authors in the first instance of an in-text citation and the use of the first author with ‘et al.’ in all subsequent citations of the same reference. This too, will require APA specific development in RefWorks.”

If you have any comments please pass them on to the RefWorks administrator for Loughborough who is Frank Parry at f.parry@lboro.ac.uk

by unloveablesteve cc licence Flickr

I have some sympathies with the article by Alec Gill in the Times Higher advocating a reduction in the number of citation styles available.  He says “Generally, students cannot see the logic behind the petty rules and the permutation of punctuation (brackets, underlinings, single quotation marks, italics, and commas dotted here and there).”

He proposes a  method building on the traditional author-year system to include a material type. Thus a newspaper reference would appear like this:

Cavendish, C. 2009 eNewspaper: Insane Spendaholics are Mortgaging our Future, The Times, 20 March

If this leads to some simplification then I’m all for it! You’ll find help with referencing and citation styles here.

At a briefing on the Queen’s Lawn at Imperial College HEFCE announced the interim results of the pilot REF process which 22 institutions (not us) have been involved in. It seems that HEFCE have now decided that expert panels will continue to be the main way in which block research funding will be allocated, though citation counts may still be used by these peer review panels to help assess quality – particularly in STEM subjects.  It is possible that bibliometric data will be used by the panels to help assess each paper submitted. Dr Graeme Rosenberg of HEFCE indicate that citation data from both Web of Science and Scopus will be used – and it is likely that HEFCE will help make WOS and Scopus more widely available to institutions.

The next assessment period will cover 2008-2012 and may require researchers to submit their best 3 papers for assessment. The figure of 3 is not finalised and a final report will be available at the end of the summer. More on the REF on the HEFCE website and in the Times Higher

You do not need to register or login to search the database, but if you want to order material you will need to register and create a username and password.

Some theses are available to download immediately. Where a thesis has not been digitized, users can expect a delay of approximately ten working days before it is available electronically.

Most theses are available free of charge to the end user as the majority of institutions participating in EThOS have agreed to pay for digitisation of their theses in support of the Open Access initiative. However, some institutions may not have the budget to fund the digitisation and have set charges which appear on EThOS.

If the thesis you want does not appear on EThOS you can complete a request form . Please remember to check that the thesis you require is from a participating institution and that it is listed on that university’s library catalogue before you complete the form. Links to UK higher education library catalogues are available here .

If a you want to consult a thesis from a university that is not participating in EthOS please contact Jane Bramley or Jeanette Machin for advice.

So, congratulations to Lisa Kelly (Human Sciences) for her poster on thermal comfort on train journeys and to
Christine Parkes (School of Mathematics) for her poster on Does the head rule the healthy heart? Lisa and Christine were among the 5 runners up.

More impressively, three of the five finalists represented the Science Faculty. They are:

• Daniel Elford (Physics) for his poster on Fighting Noise Tsunami and Earthquakes
• Ashleigh Filtness (Human Sciences) for her poster on Sleep restriction increases driving risk in treated obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients
• Samuel King (School of Mathematics) for his poster on Students’ views on the use of voting systems at Loughborough University.

The finalists will represent Loughborough University at the Vitae Midland Hub Poster Competition in July. We wish them well.

If you could change ONE THING about the Library, what would it be?

If the Library had more space, how should we use it?

Now’s your chance to have your say about the Library. Please take a few minutes to visit our survey at: http://picture-box.lboro.ac.uk/Public/UCCASS/survey.php?sid=76 before 15 May 2009.

In our regular review of the Insitutional Repository, the pages with the most visits in March amongst the Science Faculty authors are:

• Norris et al
• Houghton et al
• Sepulveda and Binner

Who will be in the top 3 for April? Don’t forget to add our RSS feed to your reader to find out!

In our regular review of the Insitutional Repository, the pages with the most visits in February amongst the Science Faculty authors are:

• Jo Bryant
• Michael Norris
• Stephen Fletcher

Who will be in the top 3 for March? Don’t forget to add our RSS feed to your reader to find out!