Watch all the Research Bites 2014 on Aston Replay

Research Bites 2014 were a success! The short, informal seminars held on Wednesdays throughout July and August featured topics relevant to researchers at all levels. Every seminar was captured by Aston Replay and they are all now available to watch online.

Follow the links below to access the Aston Replay recordings, PowerPoint slides (annotated in many cases) and further information (including how each seminar maps to vitae's Researcher Development Framework) for each of the topics:

• Level Up: enhance your literature searching
• Measuring Research Impact
• Distinguish yourself: get an ORCiD
• Open Access publishing – an important growth area at Aston
• Safeguarding Research Data
• Get more citations: strategies for increasing the visibility of your work
• What’s new? Getting the most from SCOPUS and Web of Science
• Cite it! Sort it! EndNote it!

If you have any feedback on these seminars or further questions about any of these topics, contact your Information Specialist.  

Ebola virus: free research and news articles from AAAS Science

Given the current outbreak, unprecedented in terms of number of people killed and rapid geographic spread, Science and Science Translational Medicine have made this special collection of research and news articles on the viral disease freely available to researchers and the general public.

Open access 'Gold' budgets now available

Are you an Aston author?  If "yes", we are pleased to inform you that two budgets are now available to cover the publishing costs of 'Gold' open access (OA) journal articles.  OA publishing is all about sharing research freely and openly to all readers online, indeed many funding bodies, both public and private, now mandate for various levels of OA publishing, eg. HEFCE, RCUK, EC and the Wellcome Trust. 

'Gold' OA publishing involves the payment of an article processing charge (APC) - this includes the OA fee and/or page printing charges.  OA articles can be published in either wholly OA journals, eg. the extensive range of journal titles in Europe PubMed Central, or in hybrid journals (usually as an additional option), eg. many of the journals published by Elsevier and Wiley.  The library at Aston administers payments for these APCs - we can use the RCUK budget (£33,000 for 2014-15) relating to research funded (wholly or partly) by AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC or STFC, or the institutional budget (£35,000 for 2014-15) relating to other research projects. 

Because the APC budgets are limited consideration needs to be given to aspects such as high journal quality, potential REF submissions and the imposition of any lengthy embargoes by the publishers relating to the parallel 'Green' OA publishing process, ie. self-archiving in Aston's research repository AURA/Aston Research Explorer. (Please note: funding bodies also mandate in relation to this 'Green' aspect).  If you are submitting an article for publication, or have recently had an article accepted in a high quality journal, and would like to be considered for a 'Gold' APC payment please contact Malcolm Horne, Open Access and Research Repository Specialist (m.horne@aston.ac.uk, x4506), for advice and more information. For queries and more information relating to the aspect of 'Green' OA publishing please contact Erica Wine, Open Access and Research Repository Specialist (e.wine@aston.ac.uk, x4956), or Malcolm.  If you would like to know more about the general benefits of OA publishing please contact your Information Specialist in the library.

Hello to Katie Mann

I have recently been welcomed into the library as the new Information Specialist for Languages and Social Sciences. Having previously worked at Bradford University Library and then completed my postgraduate studies at Loughborough, I am excited to begin my career as a new professional here at Aston.

Everyone has been exceptionally nice whilst I've been settling in, so I’m really looking forward to working as part of the team here in the library, and offering my support to the Languages and Social Sciences School. I can’t wait to get stuck into my work, and hope to be able to bring lots of fresh ideas to the table (as well as really bad jokes).

When not in the library, I can probably be found either roller skating, dabbling in some social activism, or avidly watching prison dramas.

Scheduled downtime for Wiley Online Library

There will be scheduled maintenance for Wiley Online Library and The Cochrane Library on Saturday August 9th at 10am for approximately 4 hours.