Great new Journal Tables of Contents Service now available

TicTocs logo

 I tried out the TicTocs Journal Table of Contents service this morning. Wow. You can search 12,000 journals from 430 publishers and, faster than you can say Gail Trimble, Corpus Christi you have the TOCs matching your search terms.  It’s even faster to load relevant references into RefWorks.  You can retrieve the full text where we have a subscription and you can also import RSS feeds into your favourite feed reader such as Google Reader or BlogLines. Access is from www.tictocs.ac.uk. It is a free service but registering enables you to store your newsfeeds.

National Science and Engineering Week

National Science and Engineering Week runs from 6-15 March. To celebrate it we’ve set  up a display showcasing some of the research work and textbooks published by members of the Science and Engineering faculties. In addition to books you’ll see artifacts from pots to pillows and from doodles to didgeredoos. You can view the display on Level 3 of the Pilkington Library from now to the end of March.

In addition to the Library display there’s lots going on for NSEW locally personally my family are off to see an exhibition on Bees and complete the Science trail at Brocks Hill Visitor Centre (Google map), Oadby, Leicestershire this weekend. Click the logo to find out more about NSEW and other events.

Bring Maths to life and win prizes!

The Maths, Stats & OR Network of the Higher Education Academy is inviting entries into its Plus new writers award.

If you can explain a mathematical topic or application in an engaging way for a general audience, then you could win an iPod, a subscription to the journal Nature, and signed copies of popular maths books.

Entries are open to school students, undergraduates and postgraduates as well as the general public. The closing date is 31 March 2009.

Good luck!

Hail all scientists

Tomorrow (12 February) sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Naturally, (pardon the pun) this event is attracting widespread attention.

Of course it is very appropriate to celebrate great scientists, but what about the equally brilliant but much lesser known variety? Yesterday (10 February) tucked away in the last few minutes of the Today Programme was a short piece about a little known scientist by the name of Paul Dirac.

Paul Dirac was the youngest theoretical physicist ever to win the Nobel Prize for Physics. According to the interview, it was Dirac’s “work that laid the foundations for string theory”.

So, as you go about your business tomorrow, spare a thought not only for the Darwins of this world but also the  Diracs.

Upgrade to Web of Science / Web of Knowledge

One of our readers has reported problems accessing the Web of Science following the recent upgrade. A note from the provider advises the following: “For any users who experience problems with access to service since the upgrade we advise clearing cookies”.

Top authors in the Institutional Repository – January

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

1. Michael Norris et al.
2. Ray Dawson et al.
3. Lili Yang et al.

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

Science: so what?

What do Bill Bryson, Charley Boorman and Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall have in common?

They are part of a government campaign to improve the public’s perception of science. The aim is to shift public opinion away from science being “remote, elitist and irrelevant” to why science is important to all of us in our everyday lives.

Why is science important to you?

Top science stories in 2008

Cath O’Driscoll writing in the Chemistry & Industry magazine has produced a pick of the chemical science stories for 2008. These include the potential for a Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak and the finding of iron-based superconductors. For more top stories of 2008 see the 12 January issue of the magazine.

Aside from chemical science, what research stands out for you?

New and improved access to RSC journals

The Library has extended access to the Royal Society of Chemistry journals to cover all titles published by the RSC. This ensures coverage back to 1997 (earlier in a couple of cases).

To view the content visit the journals page on the RSC website. Access is direct on campus, or via the Remote Working Portal off campus.

The Library Catalogue and “Find E-Journal” services will be updated to incorporate this change.

Remember, that older articles can be accessed via the RSC Archive on MetaLib.

Top authors in the Institutional Repository – December

The pages with the most visits in December amongst the Science Faculty authors are:

1. Shalika Gajasinghe
2. Gary Critchlow et al.
3. Tom Jackson et al.

Be sure to sign up for our RSS feed to find out who will be in the top 3 for January!