COP21, the 2015 Paris Climate Conference: recommended academic resources

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, or CMP 11, is being held in Paris from November 30 to December 11. It will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Official websites
The official website has agendas, documents, decisions and webcasts.
On the left of the home page there are some very useful links to basic treaties, documents and process information.
The Paris organisers have an official twitter account with the latest news, and an English official account.

National governments and international bodies
UK government website with information for citizens
the House of Commons Library have also prepared an excellent briefing
European Commission work on climate change OECD documents and policy on climate change
UNDP video   and UNDP policy and documents
 IEA document on energy and climate change 2015
UNESCO 
NATO Parliamentary assembly 
World Meterological organization statement on temperatures and climate

News coverage
Find out why the conference matters in this BBC short video
More updates and detailed analysis can also be obtained from the News websites:
Guardian
Nature magazine
Economist
FT
Telegraph
New York Times EurActiv

Declarations from interest groups and campaigners
Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact
The Women's Earth & Climate Action Network
Shift Project 

Green Alliance ( Christian Aid, Green Alliance, Greenpeace, RSPB, and WWF) 

Global Justice Now 

Greenpeace

Friends of the Earth

Academic research and analysis
Brookings Institution
World Resources Institute, which also has some papers with suggestions on the legal text
The Conversation blog
Chatham House calls for lowering meat consumption
Grantham Institute LSE

Articles and reports
eldis has lots of links to free reports and documents
Aston University has subscriptions to a number of relevant databases containing articles on this topic, including: GreenFILE, Scopus and Web of Science









With many thanks to Heather Dawson, ALISS secretary and LSE Academic Support Librarian
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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.  

Happy Birthday Science Citation Index!

The Science Citation Index (SCI), a key component of the Web of Science Core Collection, is 50 today!

From an idea by Dr Eugene Garfield in 1955 [1], the SCI was first published in 1964 as a five-volume print edition of indexed scientific work.  This was made available online in 1972, quickly followed by the Journal Citation Reports in 1975. 

Thomson Reuters have created a 50th anniversary web page with more information, a full timeline, and some vintage video instructions!

1. Garfield, E. (1955). Citation Indexes for Science: A New Dimension in Documentation through Association of Ideas. Science, 122 (3159),108-11.

Web of Science: browser display problems

The Web of Knowledge got a new look and feel during January, including a new name, Web of Science.  However, we have had some reports that the Web of Science is not displaying or functioning properly in some instances of Internet Explorer (IE). 

If you are experiencing problems with the display of Web of Science in IE (e.g. boxes overlapping, results pushed to bottom of screen), you may find a solution here:

• IE versions 7 or earlier are not supported browsers for Web of Science - please upgrade your browser to a more recent version.
• Check whether you have "Compatibility View" enabled - the Web of Science will not work if this is enabled, so you will have to switch this off.  For IE 10, press the Alt key to display the Menu bar, select the Tools menu, and select Compatibility Settings.
• Use another web browser - we have had no reported problems with Mozilla Firefox or Chrome.

If you are still experiencing problems, please send a screenshot to your Information Specialist.

Changes to the Web of Knowledge

Over this weekend (Sunday 12 Jan 1400 GMT until Monday 13 Jan 0200 GMT), the Web of Knowledge will be changing its look and feel.

• The Web of Knowledge will, in future, be known as the Web of Science
• The group of databases that used to form the Web of Science will now be known as "Web of Science Core Collection"
• Access to databases via the new Web of Science will remain unchanged to our subscriptions in the Web of Knowledge (i.e. Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSYS Citation Index up to 2008, MEDLINE)
• All search functionality will remain the same, so you can continue to search the new Web of Science in the same way you previously searched the Web of Knowledge

For a brief introduction to the new Web of Science interface, watch this video.

If you have any further questions about the changes to the Web of Knowledge, please contact your Information Specialist.